Man Takallama Fihi al-Daraqutni fi Kitab al-Sunan min al-Duafa wa al-Matrukin wa al-Majhulin
- Author died
- 803 AH
- Editions
- Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs in the State of Qatar
Man Takallama Fihi al-Daraqutni fi Kitab al-Sunan min al-Duafa wa al-Matrukin wa al-Majhulin (Those Criticized by al-Daraqutni in the Book of Sunan Among the Weak, Abandoned, and Unknown Narrators) is a specialized hadith biographical index compiled by the Syrian Hanbali scholar Ibn Zurayq (d. 803 AH / 1401 CE) . The work gathers and organizes the critical verdicts issued by Abu al-Hasan al-Daraqutni on defective, abandoned, and obscure narrators recorded throughout his seminal collection, Sunan al-Daraqutni .
Purpose and Scope
The compilation extracts the critical statements (jarh) made by al-Daraqutni regarding impugned transmitters appearing across the transmission chains of his Sunan . It documents approximately five hundred narrators whom al-Daraqutni judged as weak (da'if), discarded (matruk), or unknown (majhul) .
A notable scholarly feature of the work is that it preserves over two hundred biographical entries and critical assessments from al-Daraqutni that are absent from the standard printed recensions of Sunan al-Daraqutni . The book demonstrates that its transmission aligns closely with the recension utilized by Abu Muhammad Abd Allah ibn Yahya al-Ghassani in his Takhrij al-Ahadith al-Di'af, indicating that both late compilations derived their materials from an earlier, fuller manuscript tradition of al-Daraqutni's Sunan .
Structure and Method
Ibn Zurayq organized the transmitters in alphabetical order (huruf al-mu'jam), though he did not observe strict alphabetical sorting within individual letter sections :
- Names: The work opens with personal names, placing transmitters named Ahmad first out of reverence for the Prophet Muhammad's name, followed by Ibrahim, Ismail, Ishaq, and subsequent names, concluding the main alphabetical section with Ya'qub ibn al-Walid al-Madani . Male and female narrators are integrated within the same sequence .
- Kunya Section: A separate alphabetical sequence follows for transmitters known primarily by their patronymics (kunya) .
For each transmitter, Ibn Zurayq typically identifies the narrator's direct teacher and student from the initial passage where the critical judgment appears in the Sunan, occasionally citing the complete prophetic text . Where al-Daraqutni offered consistent assessments across multiple passages, Ibn Zurayq records only one judgment; if the assessments differ, he presents the initial verdict and cites the variant statement noted elsewhere in the work .
Manuscript and Publication
The work survived in a unique autograph manuscript preserved at the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (within collective codex no. 33, folios 41–63) . The manuscript exhibits Ibn Zurayq's distinct hand, diacritical markers for ambiguous names, and collation points, alongside marginal notations and ownership endorsements by the later scholar Ibn al-Mibrad .
The work was critically edited by Abu Abd Allah Husayn ibn Ukkashah and published in one volume by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs of Qatar in 1428 AH / 2007 CE .
Answer updated