Sualat Hamza lil-Daraqutni
- Author died
- 427 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Ma‘ārif
Sualat Hamza lil-Daraqutni (The Questions of Hamza to al-Daraqutni) is a specialized hadith work compiled by the hadith scholar Hamza al-Sahmi (d. 427 AH / 1035–1036 CE), documenting critical evaluations of hadith transmitters (al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil) primarily delivered by Abu al-Hasan al-Daraqutni (d. 385 AH / 995 CE) alongside several other authorities.
Scope and Contents
The work records inquiries posed to senior hadith critics regarding the reliability, integrity, and flaws of narrators. It contains 246 questions addressed to al-Daraqutni. Al-Sahmi transmits these exchanges using varied expressions, including "I asked" (sa'altu), "al-Daraqutni was asked" (su'ila al-Daraqutni), and "I heard" (sami'tu), indicating that while al-Sahmi personally directed many questions, he also witnessed questions posed by fellow students and subsequently gathered and organized the material.
In addition to al-Daraqutni's evaluations, the collection includes questions directed to five other scholars:
- Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali ibn 'Umar al-Qattan, known as Ibn Ghulam al-Zuhri (47 questions).
- Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Isma'ili (45 questions).
- Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn 'Abdan (21 questions).
- Abu Zur'a Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Kashshi (12 questions).
- Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Hammad ibn Sufyan al-Kufi (10 questions).
The answers provide biographical profiles of transmitters, judgments on their trustworthiness or unreliability, the specific texts and compilations they transmitted, and assessments of errors (awham) occurring in their transmissions. Unlike dedicated treatises on weak narrators that focus exclusively on discredited transmitters, the Sualat encompasses both trustworthy figures (thiqat) and criticized figures (majruhun). The majority of the figures discussed were contemporaries, teachers, peers, or grand-teachers of al-Daraqutni, as well as teachers of Abu Bakr al-Isma'ili. Most of the subjects were based in or visited Baghdad, though individuals from various regions of the Islamic world and a small number of earlier transmitters are also evaluated. The work preserves unique historical and biographical information on obscure transmitters not documented elsewhere.
Transmission and Reception
A principal line of transmission for the surviving text passes through the hadith transmitter Ibn Tabarzad (d. 607 AH / 1207 CE).
The collection served as an important source for subsequent biographical and biographical evaluation literature. Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi quoted directly from it 165 times in his Tarikh Baghdad. It was also cited by Ibn Makula in al-Ikmal, Ibn 'Asakir in Tarikh Dimashq, Ibn al-Jawzi in al-Muntazam and al-Mawdu'at, Ibn Nuqta in al-Taqyid and al-Istidrak, Ibn Kathir in al-Bidayah wa-l-Nihayah, Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi in Tarikh al-Islam, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, and Siyar A'lam al-Nubala', as well as by Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani and Ibn al-'Imad al-Hanbali.
The work has been edited and published, notably by Muwaffaq ibn 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abd al-Qadir (Riyadh, 1404 AH / 1984 CE) and by Abu 'Umar Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Azhari (Cairo, 1427 AH / 2006 CE).
Answer updated