Tarikh Wasit
- Author died
- 292 AH
- Editions
- Alam al-Kutub
Tarikh Wasit (The History of Wasit) is a local biographical and historical work compiled by the Iraqi hadith scholar and historian Bahshal (d. 292 AH / 905 CE), documenting the city of Wasit and its religious scholars.
Scope and Subject Matter
Regarded as the earliest dedicated history written about the city of Wasit and one of the oldest surviving works of Islamic urban history, the book focuses heavily on hadith scholarship rather than conventional narrative history. Although it contains introductory material on the foundation, topography, and administration of Wasit, its primary aim is to record the prominent hadith transmitters who originated from the city or entered it up through the late third century AH.
Structure and Method
The work begins with historical and geographical accounts regarding the region and the founding of the city, including:
- Mentions of Kaskar and the governors appointed over it by Umar ibn al-Khattab.
- The story of the monk and the founding of Wasit by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf.
- Topographical sections on Wasit al-Qasab, the chain of Wasit (silsilat Wasit), the layout and quarters of the city, those who designated it Wasit Misr, and individuals who sought to settle there.
Following the introductory chapters, Bahshal arranges the biographical material chronologically across generations (qurun):
- The first century (al-qarn al-awwal): The Companions of the Prophet who entered Wasit, served him, saw him, or transmitted his sayings.
- The second century (al-qarn al-thani): Successors and later transmitters of Wasit whose reports reached the author.
- The third and fourth centuries: Later generations of Wasiti hadith narrators.
Rather than compiling extensive personal biographies, the author typically records each narrator's name along with sample prophetic traditions they transmitted with full chains of transmission (isnad), making the work function essentially as a specialized biographical dictionary of hadith transmitters.
Transmission, Continuations, and Reception
The text was transmitted directly from Bahshal by his associate, the hadith scholar Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Sam'an al-Mu'addal (d. before 330 AH). The scholar Khamis al-Hawzi commended Bahshal's precision in the work, noting that he assembled the history of the people of Wasit, verified their names, and ordered their generations with unmatched mastery and memorization.
In later centuries, the Wasiti historian Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Tayyib al-Jallabi, known as Ibn al-Maghazili (d. 483 AH / 1090 CE), authored a supplement to the book titled al-Dhayl ala Tarikh Wasit, which was later studied and excerpted by al-Sam'ani before being lost.
Manuscripts and Publication
The text survived in a unique manuscript preserved in the Taymuriyya collection at the Egyptian National Library (Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya) in Cairo. It was edited by the scholar Kurkis Awwad and published in Baghdad by the Iraqi Scientific Academy (al-Majma' al-Ilmi al-Iraqi), accompanied by critical apparatus, reading certificates (sama'at), and extensive indexes.
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