Qurrat al-Ayn fi Talkhis Tarajim Rijal al-Sahihayn
- Author died
- 1442 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Mi‘rāj al-Duwaliyyah lil-Nashr
Qurrat al-Ayn fi Talkhis Tarajim Rijal al-Sahihayn (Delight of the Eye in Abridging the Biographies of the Narrators of the Two Sahihs) is a biographical dictionary of hadith narrators compiled by the Ethiopian scholar Muhammad bin Ali bin Adam al-Ethiopi (d. 1442 AH / 2020 CE), who served as a teacher at Dar al-Hadith al-Khayriyyah in Mecca. The work provides concise reference entries for all the transmitters found in the two canonical hadith collections of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.
Background and Purpose
The author noted in his preface that he originally drafted these biographical summaries on loose sheets of paper for personal memorization. When those scattered papers repeatedly became misplaced and required rewriting, he resolved to compile them into a unified, concise handbook to serve as an aid for himself and other students of hadith seeking to memorize the biographies and standings of the narrators of the two Sahih collections.
Sources and Method
Al-Ethiopi abridged and synthesized his material from several classical biographical references on hadith transmitters:
- Al-Jam bayn Rijal al-Sahihayn by Ibn al-Qaysarani (448–507 AH), which had merged Abu Nasr al-Kalabadhi's work on the narrators of Sahih al-Bukhari with Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Ali al-Isfahani's work on the narrators of Sahih Muslim.
- Tahdhib al-Kamal fi Asma al-Rijal by al-Mizzi (654–742 AH).
- Tahdhib al-Tahdhib and its abridgment Taqrib al-Tahdhib by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (773–852 AH).
- Khulasat Tadhhib Tahdhib al-Kamal by Safi al-Din al-Khazraji (d. after 923 AH).
- Al-Mujtaba min al-Mujtana by Ibn al-Jawzi (510–597 AH), used alongside al-Khazraji's work for establishing the total counts of narrations attributed to individual Companions.
- Lubb al-Lubab fi Tahrir al-Ansab by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (849–911 AH) and its foundation al-Lubab by Ibn al-Athir (555–630 AH), used for recording the precise vocalization of ambiguous names and patronymics in the text and margins.
Following Ibn Hajar's model in Taqrib al-Tahdhib, entries are condensed so that each transmitter's entry generally does not exceed a line and a half.
Structure and Classification
Under each letter of the alphabet, the book divides the transmitters into three successive categories based on Ibn al-Qaysarani's framework:
- Narrators whose transmissions are agreed upon by both al-Bukhari and Muslim.
- Narrators transmitted from exclusively by al-Bukhari.
- Narrators transmitted from exclusively by Muslim.
At the conclusion of each alphabetical section, a special chapter is dedicated to unique singular names (al-asma al-mufradah). Unlike Ibn al-Qaysarani, al-Ethiopi arranged the transmitters strictly alphabetically by both their own names and their fathers' names, adopting the ordering system used by al-Mizzi and Ibn Hajar.
Al-Ethiopi relies on Ibn Hajar's twelve-tier scheme of critical evaluation (maratib al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil)—ranging from Companions and the highest degrees of trustworthiness down to those accused of fabrication—and his twelve generational classes (tabaqat). Entries employ standardized abbreviations: (ط) followed by a number designates the generational class; (ت) followed by a date records the year of death; and the particle (عن) with a figure gives the narrator's age at death if known. In addition to noting whether a transmitter appears in the two Sahihs, the entries incorporate symbols for other hadith works by al-Bukhari and Muslim and the remaining collections of the Six Books.
Publication
The work was published in a single volume (632 pages) by Dar al-Mi'raj al-Duwaliyyah in Riyadh in conjunction with Mu'assasat al-Rayyan in Beirut, with its revised and expanded second edition appearing in 1421 AH / 2000 CE featuring additions in the section on agnomens (bab al-kuna).
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