Fath al-Bab fi al-Kuna wa al-Alqab
- Author died
- 395 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Kawthar
Fath al-Bab fi al-Kuna wa al-Alqab (Opening the Door to Agnomens and Titles) is an onomastic biographical work on hadith transmitters by the traditionist Ibn Mandah (310–395 AH / 922–1005 CE) . The book documents the agnomens (kuna) and honorific titles or sobriquets (alqab) of narrators, serving as a specialized reference in the biographical evaluation of transmitters (ilm al-rijal) .
Title and Authorship
The work is known under its full title Fath al-Bab fi al-Kuna wa al-Alqab, and is also referenced in scholarly sources as al-Asami wa al-Kuna, al-Asma' wa al-Kuna, or simply al-Kuna . Fuat Sezgin listed Fath al-Bab and al-Asami wa al-Kuna as two separate compositions in his bio-bibliographical history, but researchers noted that both titles designate the same work .
While primary attributions credit the book to Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Mandah (d. 395 AH; another report gives 396 AH), bibliographers such as Carl Brockelmann noted an attribution of the text to his son, Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Rahman ibn Mandah (d. 470 AH) .
Manuscripts and Editions
The work has survived in several manuscript collections:
- A copy in the Berlin State Library (MS 9917, also cataloged as 9317) comprising 299 folios .
- A fragment of 17 folios preserved in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin (MS 5165/2), bound within a composite manuscript alongside Ibn Mandah's Tasmiyat al-Mashayikh .
- Additional manuscript holdings preserved at Kuwait University and the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh .
A portion of the text was edited and published with commentary by Sven Dedering in 1927 in Germany (Uppsala) . The complete work was later edited by Abu Qutaybah Nazar Muhammad al-Faryabi and published in one volume by Maktabat al-Kawthar in Riyadh in 1417 AH / 1996 CE .
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