Sualat al-Salafi li Khamis al-Hawzi
- Author died
- 510 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Fikr
Sualat al-Salafi li Khamis al-Hawzi (The Questions of al-Silafi to Khamis al-Hawzi) is a hadith transmitter criticism (al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil) treatise compiled by the hadith master Abu Tahir al-Silafi (d. 576 AH / 1180 CE), recording evaluations delivered by his teacher Khamis al-Hawzi (d. 510 AH / 1116 CE) regarding scholars and narrators from Wasit and visiting scholars .
Background and Content
The full manuscript title of the work is Juz' fihi Sualat al-Hafiz Abi Tahir al-Silafi Aba al-Karam al-Hawzi 'an Jama'ah min Ahl Wasit wa-min al-Ghuraba' al-Qadimin Ilayha (A Fascicle Containing the Questions of al-Hafiz Abu Tahir al-Silafi to Abu al-Karam al-Hawzi Regarding a Group of the People of Wasit and Visitors Who Arrived There) . The respondent, Abu al-Karam Khamis ibn Ali al-Hawzi, was a grammarian and hadith scholar based in Wasit . Al-Silafi praised him as a discerning memorizer well-versed in the knowledge of narrators, recording that al-Hawzi dictated answers to every inquiry directly from memory .
The questions focus on assessing the reliability, precision, and sectarian affiliations of hadith transmitters connected to Wasit. For example, al-Hawzi evaluated Aslam ibn Sahl al-Wasiti (known as Bahshal), author of Tarikh Wasit (History of Wasit), deeming him a trustworthy and master scholar suitable for canonical collections and praising his precision in documenting the biographies of Wasiti scholars . In his introduction, modern editor Muta' al-Tarabishi noted that al-Hawzi adhered to the traditionalist creed of Ahl al-Hadith and disparaged innovators, an outlook reflected throughout his transmitter assessments .
Transmission and Publication
The surviving transmission of the work is preserved through the narration of Abu al-Fadl al-Hamdani from al-Silafi . A physical copy is housed in the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (MS Hadith 349), where the fascicle occupies the first 25 folios of the volume, followed by al-Silafi's extraction of the second half of Kitab al-Shajarah fi Ahwal al-Rijal by Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Juzajani and an excerpt of the questions of Abu Bakr al-Athram to Ahmad ibn Hanbal .
The work was edited by Muta' al-Tarabishi and published by the Arab Academy of Damascus in 1976, with a subsequent edition issued by Dar al-Fikr in Damascus in 1403 AH (1983 CE) . Another edition was prepared by Muhammad ibn Ali al-Azhari and published by Dar al-Faruq al-Hadithiyyah in Cairo .
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