Ghunyat al-Multamis Idah al-Multabis
- Author died
- 463 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Rushd
Ghunyat al-Multamis Idah al-Multabis (The Sufficiency of the Seeker in Clarifying the Ambiguous) is a treatise on the science of hadith transmitters by the Iraqi traditionist and historian al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (392–463 AH / 1002–1071 CE), devoted to disambiguating narrator names that are prone to confusion due to variations between proper names and agnomens (kunyas).
Background and Purpose
The book addresses a specialized branch of hadith nomenclature termed al-multabis (the ambiguous). This category includes instances where two distinct narrators share identical names and paternal names, but one narrator's father is referred to by a proper name while the other's is given as a kunya (such as Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahman versus Ahmad ibn Abi Abd al-Rahman), as well as cases where a single narrator's father is recorded in some sources by his given name and in others by his kunya.
Al-Khatib composed the work in response to an inquiry from a correspondent who had engaged in a dispute over whether Sulayman ibn al-Mughirah and Sulayman ibn Abi al-Mughirah were the same individual, drawing comparisons to known identical pairs such as Ma'dan ibn Talhah (also known as Ibn Abi Talhah) and Sayf ibn Sulayman (also known as Ibn Abi Sulayman). Al-Khatib explained that he wrote the treatise to establish the correct position on the disputed figures and then expanded it to compile similar cases for the benefit of scholars and students.
Reception and Editions
The biographical bibliographer al-Safadi recorded the work under the title Ghunyat al-Muqtabis fi Tamyiz al-Multabis and noted that it comprised six parts (ajza'). Later scholars of hadith criticism, such as Ibn al-Qattan in Bayan al-Wahm wa-l-Iham and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in Fath al-Bari, cited and relied on al-Khatib's critical verdicts from the treatise.
While the full original work containing all complete chains of transmission (isnads) and narrations was later considered lost by researchers relying on intermediary citations, an abridged version shorn of isnads and hadith texts was preserved and published. The text has appeared in modern editions, including one edited by Nazar Muhammad al-Faryabi (Riyadh, 1413 AH) and another edited by Yahya ibn Abd Allah al-Bakri al-Shahri (Riyadh, 1422 AH / 2001 CE).
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