Abu Bakr Ahmad bin `Amr ad-Dahhak bin Makhlad ash-Shaibani ( ar, أبو بكرأحمد بن عمرو بن الضحاك بن مخلد الشيباني), widely known as Ibn Abi Asim ( ar, ابن أبي عاصم), was an Iraqi

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

of the 9th century. He is most famous for his work in the field of

hadith science Hadith studies ( ar, علم الحديث ''ʻilm al-ḥadīth'' "science of hadith", also science of hadith, or science of hadith criticism or hadith criticism) consists of several religious scholarly disciplines used by Muslim scholars in th ...

Biography

Family and early life

Ibn Abi Asim was born in

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...

, Iraq in 822. He grew up in an academic household, as both his father and his grandfather were scholars of Prophetic traditions in their own right. Due to his family's scholarly background, he was educated in the religious sciences at an early age. While religious learning was often begun in a

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...

masjid A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, i ...

starting in the early teens, Ibn Abi Asim had a head start relative to his time period.

Career

Eventually, Ibn Abi Asim left Basra for the city of

Isfahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...

, further to the east. Late in life, he was granted a position as a

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

at his new city of residence.Kahalah, Mu'jam al-Mu`allifin, v.2, pg.36

Death

Ibn Abi Asim died in Isfahan in the year 900. He was 81 years old and at the time of his death, he was still holding his position as a judge. According to

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

historian Abu Nu`aym, Ibn Abi Asim was buried in Isfahan's Doshabaz cemetery.

Legacy

Works

Ibn Abi Asim compiled numerous Prophetic traditions into two volumes, organized into chapters based on different theological and creed-related topics. He had also written about the first-generation Muslim and

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

Mu'awiyah Mu'awiya I ( ar, معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān; –April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the deat ...

, though the work is now lost. Likewise, the exact topic has eluded historians, with

Al-Suyuti Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti ( ar, جلال الدين السيوطي, Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī) ( 1445–1505 CE),; (Brill 2nd) or Al-Suyuti, was an Arab Egyptian polymath, Islamic scholar, historian, Sufi, and jurist. From a family of Persian or ...

claiming it was a book on Mu'awiyah's dreams, while

Ibn Hajar Ibn Hajar may refer to: *Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (1372–1449), Shafi'i and Hadith scholar *Ibn Hajar al-Haytami Shihāb al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī al-Makkī al-Anṣārī known as Ibn Haja ...

referred to it as a book on Mu'awiyah's virtues. It is not known whether the topic Ibn Abi Asim's essay was actually disputed, or if he had simply written about both topics.

Sunni Muslim evaluation

Historians Abu al-Abbas al-Niswi and Abu Nu`aym both reported Ibn Abi Asim as having been a Zahirite. Abu Nu`aym, Dhikr Akhbar Isfahan, v.1, pg.100 Although he has become an important figure for the Zahiri school in the modern day, few of his works in jurisprudence have survived to the modern era.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn Abi Asim Iraqi Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam 9th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Hadith compilers 820s births 900 deaths Zahiris Year of birth uncertain 9th-century jurists 9th-century Arabs