Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani
Fi Ahkam al-Jarh wa al-Tadil - ضمن "Athar al-Mualimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dar Alam al-Fawa'id lil-Nashr wal-Tawzi'
Fi Ahkam al-Jarh wa al-Tadil (Arabic: في أحكام الجرح والتعديل, lit. 'On the Rulings of Impugnment and Validation') is a specialized treatise on the methodology of hadith criticism and narrator evaluation by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Mu'allimi al-Yamani (1313–1386 AH / 1895–1966 CE) . It was published posthumously as part of his collected works, Athar al-Mu'allimi .
Title and Purpose
The treatise was not explicitly assigned this title by the author; rather, the title was derived by its editors from al-Mu'allimi's introductory remark: "It occurred to me to compile a treatise on the rulings of impugnment and validation" (وقد عن لي أن أجمع رسالة في أحكام الجرح والتعديل) .
Al-Mu'allimi composed the work with two primary objectives:
- Resolving complex and intricate issues within the field of narrator criticism (jarh wa-ta'dil) .
- Facilitating pathways for independent scholarly assessment (ijtihad) within the discipline, enabling scholars to evaluate transmitters directly based on evidential proof and established principles rather than uncritical reliance on late authorities .
Transmission and Content
The text survives in an incomplete state, lacking both its beginning and ending, with some disarrangement across its leaves . It was recovered from al-Mu'allimi's manuscripts preserved in the Library of the Holy Mosque in Mecca among various notebooks containing assorted research topics .
The extant text spans twenty-seven pages in print and deals primarily with the foundations of narrator criticism and the examination of probity (adalah) . Because its subject matter is closely aligned with another of his works, al-Istibsar fi Naqd al-Akhbar, the editor noted that the treatise likely represents an early draft of al-Istibsar, though it contains substantial unique additions .
Publication
The work was edited and published as the second entry in Majmu' al-Rasa'il al-Hadithiyyah (volume 15 of Athar al-Shaykh al-Allamah Abd al-Rahman ibn Yahya al-Mu'allimi al-Yamani), prepared by a team of scholars under the scientific directorship of Ali ibn Muhammad al-Imran and published by Dar Alam al-Fawa'id in Mecca .
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