Idah al-Ishkal
- Author died
- 507 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Mu‘allā
Idah al-Ishkal (Clarification of Ambiguities) is a biographical hadith treatise by the traditionist and historian Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn Tahir al-Maqdisi, known as Ibn al-Qaysarani (448–507 AH / 1056–1113 CE), dedicated to identifying anonymous individuals mentioned across prophetic traditions .
Subject Matter and Scope
The work belongs to the genre of al-mubhamat (obscure and unnamed figures), which focuses on uncovering the identities of individuals left unnamed or referred to obliquely—such as "a man", "a woman", or "a relative"—in hadith texts and chains of transmission . The book is recorded under slightly varying titles in bio-bibliographical literature, including Idah al-Ishkal fi man ubhima ismuhu min al-nisa' wa-l-rijal (Clarification of Ambiguities Regarding Men and Women Left Unnamed) and Idah al-Ishkal fima lam yusamma min ruwat al-hadith (Clarification of Ambiguities Regarding Unnamed Hadith Narrators) .
It stands alongside other early and classical contributions to the genre, such as the works of Abd al-Ghani ibn Sa'id al-Azdi, al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Ibn Bashkuwal, and Abu Zur'ah al-Iraqi .
Scholarly Reception and Use
Bibliographer Haji Khalifa noted in Kashf al-Zunun that Ibn Tahir gathered valuable scholarly insights in this work, though he treated his material expansively . Later hadith scholars and biographical critics drew upon Idah al-Ishkal to identify obscure figures and resolve conflicting names in transmission lines; for instance, Ala' al-Din Mughaltay cited it in his biographical compendium Ikmal Tahdhib al-Kamal when discussing the identity and naming of specific Companions and relatives mentioned in prophetic narrations .
Publication
The text was edited by Basim al-Jawabirah and published in a single volume by Maktabat al-Mu'alla in Kuwait (1408 AH / 1988 CE) .
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