(a.), technical term used in the science of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.] for a well-known tradition transmitted via a minimum of three different isnād s [ q.v.]. ¶ (G.H.A. Juynboll) Bibliography Nūr al-Dīn ʿItr, Muʿd̲j̲am al-muṣṭalaḥāt al-ḥadīt̲h̲iyya, Damascus 1976, 98, and the literature quoted there.

(a.), the verbal noun from dawwana "to register”, most probably a denominal verb from the Persian noun dīwān [ q.v.]. For tadwīn in the connotation of “drawing up lists for military and administrative purposes”, see dīwān. For its use as “gathering poetry of a certain poet or tribe”, see s̲h̲iʿr . In the science of ḥadīt̲h̲ , the term indicates the collecting of traditions in writing in order to derive legal precepts from them and not as a mere memory aid, for which rather the terms kitābat al-ʿilm or k. al-ḥadīt̲h̲ were used. The period of tadwīn al-ḥadīt̲h̲ is genera…

, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. K̲h̲allād, often referred to in mediaeval Arabic literature as Ibn al-K̲h̲allād . ḳāḍī and author of various works of adab [ q.v.] ¶ who died in 360/971. His date of birth is unknown, but judging by the death dates of his alleged tradition masters, he must have been born some one hundred years earlier, if credence were to be granted at all to the usual longevity ascribed to transmitters of that period. For references to biographical notices on him, see GAS, i, 193. Of the poetry attributed to him a few lines have been preserved in Yatīmat al-dahr …

(a.), a technical term in the science of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.]. It is used to indicate that established transmission methods, e.g. as indicated by terms such as ḥaddat̲h̲anī , ak̲h̲baranī or samiʿtu , are not known to have occurred, or have not been observed, between the transmitters of one or more links in an isnād [ q.v.]. The method described by the term muʿanʿan solely consists of the preposition ʿan “on the authority of”. Isnāds with one or more times the preposition ʿan between two transmitters are called muʿanʿan isnāds . Closely connected with this sort of isnād and often dealt with in t…

(a.), a technical term in the science ¶ of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.] used to describe a certain type of tradition or a transmitter of such traditions. The plural of munkar is either munkarāt or manākīr . The definition of the term hinges on two connotations of the verb ankara , which conveys among others the notions “to be ignorant of” as well as “to reject” or “disapprove”. Thus the term can be translated by “unknown” as well as “objectionable”, and in whatever context it occurs, it potentially constitutes a double entendre. Some Muslim scholars equate the term with s̲h̲ād̲h̲d̲h̲ …

b. al-Ward, Abū Bisṭām al-ʿAtakī, a mawlā from Baṣra with the honorific s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-islām , was an eminent scholar and collector of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.]. Born during the years 82-6/702-7, his death from the plague is generally taken to have occurred in 160/776. Originally from Wāsiṭ, he came to live in Baṣra, where he sought out al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī [ q.v.]. S̲h̲uʿba is recorded to have studied masāʾil (= juridical problems) with him, so if that is historical he may be assumed to have arrived there in or before 110/728, the year in which Ḥasan…

(a.), an adjective generally meaning "righteous", "virtuous", "incorrupt", used in the science of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.] criticism as a technical term indicating a transmitter who, although otherwise praised for his upright conduct, is known to have brought into circulation one or more traditions spuriously ascribed to the Prophet Muḥammad. It is the contents of such traditions, as well as their underlying meaning, that characterise their recognized inventor as ṣāliḥ rather than as waḍḍāʿ , i.e. "forger", or kad̲h̲d̲h̲āb , "liar". Transmitters labelled ṣāliḥ, or its presumably slig…

(1892-1958), well-known Egyptian scholar and editor of classical Arabic texts dealing with poetry, adab [ q.v.] and especially ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.]. He received his religious education at al-Azhar [ q.v.], whereafter he was appointed ḳāḍī in Zagazig. Already during his lifetime S̲h̲ākir was considered as the foremost ḥadīt̲h̲ expert of his generation. He was particularly famous for his alleged expertise in the relationships between transmitters featuring in isnād s [ q.v.]. He died just before a stormy controversy on the value of Muslim tradition broke out which was t…

, verbal noun of form VI of a verb meaning “to come one after another”. This article is meant as an extension of the art. mutawātir [ q.v.], the participle of the same verb. Tawātur is a technical term in the science of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.], which means roughly “broad authentication”. It is often adverbially used. It indicates that a historical report or a prophetic tradition is supported by such a large number of isnād strands, each beginning with a different Companion or other ancient authority, that its authenticity/truthfulness is thereby assumed…

(a.), a technical term in the science of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.]. The oldest definition of this term, when applied to an isnād [ q.v.], was that a link was missing. This definition was soon abandoned for a more specific one: mursal is an isnād in which between the Successor and the Prophet the name of the Companion is lacking. In the course of time, the older definition gave rise to the technical term munḳaṭiʿ (lit. “cut up”; its opposite is muttaṣil ). Mediaeval Muslim ḥadīt̲h̲ experts got rid of the confusion by concluding that not every munḳaṭiʿ is mursal, but every mursal is munḳaṭiʿ. (A closely rel…

, Abū Idrīs ʿĀʾid̲h̲ Allāh b. ʿAbd Allāh , a Successor who lived from 8/629-30 until 80/699. Apart from Abū Muslim al-K̲h̲awlānī [ q.v.], with whom he often seems to have been confused, he was the only one of his tribe among the early settlers in Syria, according to K̲h̲alīfa b. K̲h̲ayyāṭ’s K. al-Ṭabaḳāt , Baghdad 1967, 307 f. During the last years of his life, he was ḳāḍī of Damascus under ʿAbd al-Malik. He was considered to be one of the ʿubbād (pious devotees) and one of the ḳurrāʾ [ q.v.] of Syria. Before he was appointed ḳāḍī, he held the function of story-teller ( ḳāṣṣ ) [ q.v.] or preacher ( wāʿiẓ …

(a.), pl. t̲h̲iḳāt , qualification used in the science of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.] to describe a transmitter as trustworthy, reliable. Through over-use it gradually lost this positive meaning and, more often than not, it is a virtually meaningless epithet. When not used alone, the term appears often in strings of qualifications which, taken at first sight, seem to be contradictory. The biographical dictionaries of ḥadīt̲h̲ transmitters abound in examples of people mentioned as t̲h̲iḳa as well as ḍaʿīf “weak”, or matrūk “to be ignored”. Mo…

, D̲j̲amāl al-Dīn abu ’l-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ Yūsuf b. al-Zakī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Yūsuf al-Kalbī al-Ḳuḍāʿī, famous Syrian traditionist. Born near Aleppo in 654/1256 of Arab stock, he moved early in life with his parents to al-Mizza [ q.v.], a rich village just outside Damascus where he received a traditional education in Ḳurʾān and some fiḳh . When he was in his early twenties he embarked upon a career as a traditionist hearing ḥadīt̲h̲s with the masters of his time. One of his fellow pupils was Taḳi ’l-Dīn Ibn Taymiyya (661-728/1263-1328 [ q.v.]), who remained a life-long friend. Al-Mizzī…

, one of Islam’s outstanding early collectors of Prophetic traditions. Abu ’l-Ḥusayn Muslim b. al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ b. Muslim al-Ḳus̲h̲ayrī al-Naysābūrī was born in Naysābūr (Nīs̲h̲āpūr) in 202/817, but according to another report in 206/821, the latter date tallying better with his alleged age at death in 261/875 given as fifty-five (lunar) years. (Cf. Ibn K̲h̲allikān, Wafayāt , ed. I. ʿAbbās, v, 195, who weighs both dates against each other.) From an early age on, he is reported to have travelled to ʿIrāḳ, the Ḥid̲j̲āz, Syria and Egypt in search of ḥadīt̲h̲ , on so-called ṭalab al-ʿilm …

, the mawlā of ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar b. al-K̲h̲aṭṭāb [ q.v.], according to early tradition sources a major transmitter of Prophetic ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.], who is described as having been a resident of Medina. His year of birth does not seem to be recorded and his year of death is variously given as 117/735, 118/736, 119/737 or 120/738 (cf. Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar, Tahd̲h̲īb , x, 414, K̲h̲alīfa b. K̲h̲ayyāṭ, Ṭabaḳāt , ed. A.Ḍ al-ʿUmarī, 256). The sources contain hardly any information on his person and the little they say is often contradictory. Ibn ʿUmar is alleged to have acquired Nāfi…

(a.), appellative of legendary as well as historical people who are alleged to have lived to an exceptionally great age. Like Judaism and other ancient religions, Islam knows a category of people, almost always men, who are characterised by extreme longevity granted by God. These persons walked the earth immediately following the Creation and are believed to have done so intermittently until today (for a 20th century example, see H. St. John B. Philby, Arabian days, London 1948, the 23rd photograph between pp. 224 and 225). Whereas for Jews Methuselah is the longest li…

(a.), pl. of rad̲j̲ul , a common Arabic word for “man”, used specifically in Arabic literature for transmitters of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.], i.e. Muslim tradition. When in the course of the second half of the 1st century of the hid̲j̲ra (the 690s) the isnād [ q.v.], i.e. the chain of transmitters of a tradition, had been introduced as the semi-official authentification device for it to be accepted or rejected, rather than that authentification was achieved by weighing the matn , i.e. its actual contents, the need to identify ḥadīt̲h̲ transmitters and to obtain detailed information on them,…

Abū Muslim ʿAbd Allāh b. T̲h̲uwab , one of the eight Successors allegedly famous for their asceticism ( zuhd [ q.v.]). He was born of the tribe K̲h̲awlān in the Yaman. One report (Abū Nuʿaym, Ḥilya , ii, 125) has it that he only became a Muslim in Syria during the caliphate of Muʿāwiya, but other reports say that he had already been converted to Islam during the prophet’s lifetime while still in the Yaman. When al-Aswad b. Ḳays (cf. Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar, Tahd̲h̲īb , xii, 236 and Abū Nuʿaym, Ḥilya, ii, 128; or: b. Kaʿb, cf. Ṭabarī, i, 1795) al-ʿAnsī D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥimār [ q.v.] summoned him to embrace his cause…

, Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā b. Sawra, great collector of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.], the author of one of the Six Books, al-kutub al-sitta. He is said to have been born in 210/825 near the town of Tirmid̲h̲ [ q.v.]. He travelled widely in search of traditions through K̲h̲urāsān, ʿIrāḳ and the Ḥid̲j̲āz. He was among others a pupil of al-Buk̲h̲ārī [ q.v.]. Later in life he became blind, allegedly as a result of excessive weeping, and he died in Tirmid̲h̲ in 279/892. He is famous in the first place for his al-D̲j̲āmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ , a collection generally considered to hold the four…

(a.), pl. of sunna [ q.v.], “norm”, “custom”, is used separately in the literature of ḥadīt̲h̲ and fiḳh [ q.vv.] as referring to several important collections of traditions and legal pronouncements (= aḳwāl ), thus resulting in this plural being used as a generic book tide of such works, as was the case with the term Ṣaḥīḥ [ q.v.]. The oldest collections called Sunan or Sunan fi ’l-fiḳh have not come down to us, and are only known from references to them in a work like Ibn al-Nadīm’s Fihrist , cf. ed. Riḍā Tad̲j̲addud, index vol., 123, right col., such as the Sunans by Makḥūl (d. 112-16/730-4), …