Masa'il Ibn Abi Shayba an Shuyukhihi
- Author died
- 297 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiyyah
Masa'il Ibn Abi Shayba 'an Shuyukhihi (Questions of Ibn Abi Shayba to His Teachers) is a work on hadith narrator criticism (al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil) compiled by the Kufan hadith master Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Abi Shayba (d. 297 AH / 909–910 CE) .
Content and Scope
The book belongs to the genre of early su'alat (inquiry collections), which served as foundational primary sources for the discipline of transmitter evaluation and hadith criticism . In the work, Muhammad ibn Uthman records rulings, appraisals, and verifications regarding individual narrators and their reliability, obtained directly from prominent authorities of his era . Among the primary teachers whose statements and critical evaluations he transmits are his father Uthman ibn Abi Shayba, his uncle Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba, the Basran critic Ali ibn al-Madini, and Ahmad ibn Yunus al-Yarbu'i .
Scholarly Reception and Status
The author, who died in his eighties after relocating from Kufa to Baghdad, was recognized by contemporaries such as Salih Jazara as trustworthy (thiqa), and Ibn Adi noted that he did not encounter any disclaimed hadith (hadith munkar) transmitted by him, attributing some of the friction he faced from fellow scholars like Mutayyin to local peer competition . While figures such as Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Ibn Kharash voiced harsh criticism against him, Al-Dhahabi described him as a knowledgeable and widely transmitted traditionist who authored useful books and a substantial history work . Later scholars such as Al-Albani evaluated him as generally acceptable (saduq) and maintained that his transmissions meet the standard of good (hasan) hadith, as analyzed in discussions on the authenticity of his inquiry collection .
Printed Editions
The text has been published in modern editions, including:
- An edition edited by Muhammad ibn Ali al-Azhari, published by Dar al-Faruq in Cairo .
- An edition edited by Amir Hasan Sabri, published as part of a collection of treatises by Dar al-Basha'ir .
- An edition focusing on his inquiries to Ali ibn al-Madini, published under the title Su'al Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Abi Shayba li-Ali ibn al-Madini fi al-Jarh wa-l-Ta'dil by Maktabat al-Ma'arif in Riyadh .
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