Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri

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Name: Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Ubaydullah ibn Shihab al-Zuhri
Title:
Birth:
Death: 124 AH (741742)
Ethnicity: Arab
Region: Damascus
Main interests: Hadith

Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Ubaydullah ibn Shihab al-Zuhri [1](died AH 124/741-2), usually called simply Ibn Shihab or al-Zuhri. He was, if not the founder of Islamic scholarship, then its earliest star.

Contents

[edit] Life

Ibn Sa'd [2] has an account purporting to be in al-Zuhri's own words describing how he left his home in Madinah, went to Damascus to seek his fortune and was recruited into the administration of the Caliph Abd al-Malik. The Caliph observed that his father had supported Ibn al-Zubayr against him in the recent civil war. But the Caliph'a policy toward the Zubayrites was reconciliation and his father's politics were not held against him.

No connected account of al-Zuhris life after that has come down to us. There is no evidence he ever again lived in Madinah. Abd al-Malik died in AH 86 {705 CE) and al-Zuhri continued to serve the Umayyid court the rest of his life. He died in AH 124 (741-2 CE).

In the initial conversation with Abd al-Malik the names of earlier Islamic scholars whom al-Zuhri had come in contact with in Madinah are mentioned: 'Abdullah ibn Tha'laba al-'Adawi (though he is disparaged), Sa'id ibn al_Musayyab, 'Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, 'Ubaydullah ibn 'Abdullah ibn 'Utba, Abu Bakr ibn 'Abdul-Rahman ibn al-Harith, Kharija ibn Zayd ibn Thabit and 'Abdul-Rahman ibn Yazid ibn Jariya. There are many stories about the strength of al-Zuhri's learning and all the scholar's in the west who were alive when he died quoted from him in their own works [3].

Some sources, but not Ibn Sa'd, say that he had a son named Ahmad ibn Abu Bakr al-Zuhri. [4]

[edit] Relationship with the Umayyads

Some accuse al-Zuhri of having flattered the Umayyads. He taught the son of Caliph Hisham (died AH 125/743). but this does not mean that he supported the Umayyads uncritically. His relationship with the heir to the caliphate Walid (ruled for one year 125 after al-Zuhri's death) was so bad that Walid was only restrained from killing him by the Caliph's intervention. [5]

[edit] Scholarly Connections

It is pointless to try to list his teachers, colleagues and pupils. All the scholars of Islam in the west interacted with him.

There is an excellent modern discussion of al-Zuhri, his life, works and legacy in a place where you might not expect to find it - the eighth chaper of Azami's Studies in Early Hadith Literature [6]

[edit] Sunni view

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri is regarded as one of the greatest Sunni authorities on Hadith. The leading critics of Hadith such as Ibn al-Madini, Ibn Hibban, Abu Khatim, Al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani are all agreed upon his indisputable authority. He received ahadith from many Sahaba (Companions) and numerous scholars among the first and second generations after the Companions narrated from him.

A Sunni web site, understanding-islam.org, writes: Al-Zuhri, although generally accepted to be reliable by the authorities in the science of Hadith, is considered to be a Mudrij [7] and a Mudallis [8]. In his famous letter to Malik ibn Anas, Laith ibn Sa`d writes:

Ibn Shahab would give many contradicting statements, when we would meet him. While if any one of us would ask him something in writing, he, in spite of being so learned, would give three contradictory answers to the same question. He would not even be aware of what he had said about the issue in the past. This is what prompted me to give up what you do not approve of [i.e. quoting a narrative on the authority of ibn Shahab] [9].

[edit] Shi'a view

Shi'a reject him as a hadith narrator, arguing that he hated Ali [10].

al-Zuhri version of the history of Islam and hadith compilation is believed to favor the Umayyad rulers because his works were written under the direct order and funding of Abdul Malik.[11]

[edit] Non-Muslim view

Harald Motzki regards al-Zuhri as reliable [12].

[edit] Notes

Prose contains specific citations in source text which may be viewed in edit mode.

  1. ^ Our sources do not agree about his name. The form used in the text comes from Ibn Ishaq where it appears on page 4 of Guillaume's translation of "Sirat Rasul Allah". On the other hand Ibn Sa'd (in Ayeasha Bewley's translation called "The Men of Madina - vol II, pages 273-81) first says it was Muhammad ibn 'Ubaydullah ibn 'Abdullah ibn Shihab and then quotes him as saying his name was "Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn 'Ubaydullah ibn 'Abdullah ibn Shihab ibn 'Abdullah ibn al-Harith ibn Zuhra
  2. ^ cited above
  3. ^ cited above
  4. ^ This needs a reference.
  5. ^ cited above
  6. ^ Mohmammad Mustafa Azmi "Studies in Early Hadith Literature: with a Critical Edition of Some Early texts" 1st edition 1968, 3rd edition 1992 used, American Trust Publications, ISBN 0-89259-125-0
  7. ^ A person who inserts something in the text of a narrative without giving any indication of this insertion.
  8. ^ A person who narrates on the authority of someone whom, although he has met yet has not heard the narrated words from, giving the impression that he actually heard the narrated words from him.
  9. ^ (Ibn Qayyim, a`laam al- Muwaqqi'in, vol. 3, [Beirut: Daru'l-Jayl], p. 85). This statement however did not prevent al-Laith from quoting many hadiths from al-Zuhri if we are to believe the isnads in al-Bukhari
  10. ^ Answering-Ansar.org :: Mut'ah, a comprehensive guide
  11. ^ http://www.al-shia.com/html/eng/p.php?p=hadith&url=Intro.
  12. ^ http://people.uncw.edu/bergh/par246/L21RHadithCriticism.htm
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