Mashayakhat Yaqub ibn Sufyan al-Fasawi

Mashayakhat Yaqub ibn Sufyan al-Fasawi (The Catalog of Teachers of Yaqub ibn Sufyan al-Fasawi) is a 9th-century hadith work by the Persian traditionist and historian Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Sufyan al-Fasawi (d. 277 AH / 890 CE), recording his teachers and the narrations he received from them across his travels Mawsuat Mawaqif al-Salaf …+1.

Structure and Content

Compiled by al-Fasawi himself, the work is organized geographically according to the regions and cities he entered during his extensive journeys in search of hadith Fihris al-Faharis+1. For each teacher, the author records the scholar's name, lineage, and nisba, typically pairing the entry with a transmitted hadith Tarikh Dimashq li-Ibn Asa…+1.

The work originally spanned six parts (ajza'), though Ibn Asakir also described it as having been transmitted in four parts Fihris al-Faharis+1. While al-Fasawi reported having written hadith from more than one thousand reliable teachers, Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi noted that his Mashyakhah contained only about three hundred teachers, observing also that several individuals listed within it had been deemed weak by hadith critics Siyar Aalam al-Nubala. The book also included narrations concerning the virtues of the early caliphs, including Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab al-Marifa wa al-Tarikh.

Transmission and Preservation

The primary transmitter of the work from al-Fasawi was the grammarian and hadith scholar Abu Muhammad Abd Allah ibn Ja'far ibn Durustawayh (d. 346 AH / 957 CE), from whom it passed to Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn Ahmad ibn Shadhan Mashayakhat Yaqub ibn Suf…+1. It subsequently circulated through chains of transmission recorded by later hadith scholars, including Salah al-Din al-Ala'i and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani Fihris al-Faharis+1.

The complete original text has not survived in full. The extant material consists of a selection (muntaqa) from the first part—compiled by the traditionist Ibn Mahmud—along with the complete second and third parts preserved via Ibn Durustawayh Mashayakhat Yaqub ibn Suf…+1.

Significance and Edition

The work is regarded as one of the earliest surviving works in the mashyakhah and mu'jam al-shuyukh genre; Salah al-Din al-Ala'i described it as the oldest mashyakhah he had encountered Ilm al-Rijal Nashatuhu wa…+1.

The surviving portions (the selection from Part 1 together with Parts 2 and 3) were edited by Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Surayyi' and published in a single volume by Dar al-Asimah in Riyadh (1431 AH / 2010 CE) Mashayakhat Yaqub ibn Suf…+1.