Abū ʿAbdullāh Muḥammad bin Isḥāq Ibn Manda (d. 395/1004–5) was an eminent
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 ...
i
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 ...
Hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
scholar of
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
origin.
Overview of the Ibn Manda Family
In classical ''hadīth'' literature, the name "Ibn Manda" may refer to various individuals from a famous Iṣfahānī family dynasty of ''ḥadīt̲h̲'' scholars and historians which was active for nearly three centuries. The family descended from a
Sassanian
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
official, D̲j̲ahārbuk̲h̲t, said to have become a Muslim at the time of the
Islamic Conquest of Persia
The Muslim conquest of Persia, also known as the Arab conquest of Iran, was carried out by the Rashidun Caliphate from 633 to 654 AD and led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire as well as the eventual decline of the Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrian ...
, while the man after whom the family was named was Ibrāhīm (Manda) b. al-Walīd b. Sanda b. Buṭṭa b. Ustandār al-Fērōzān b. D̲j̲ahārbuk̲h̲t. His death is placed during the caliphate of
al-Mutasim
Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd ( ar, أبو إسحاق محمد بن هارون الرشيد; October 796 – 5 January 842), better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtaṣim biʾllāh (, ), was the eighth Abbasid caliph, ruling f ...
. His son, Abū Zakariyyāʾ Yaḥyā, is counted as the first prominent scholar in the family. Two sons of Yahya are known, Abd al-Rahmān (d. 320/932) and Muhammad (d. 301/913-14). Muhammad's son Ishāq (d. 341/953) was the father of the most renowned member of the family, Abu ‘Abdullāh Muhammad b. Ishāq Ibn Manda, who was born in 310/922.
Abū 'Abdullāh Ibn Mandah was focussed on attaining religious education since his childhood and went on to receive instructions from venerable scholars as Ja'fer b. Muhammad ibn Musa `Alawi, Ahmad b. Zakariyya Maqdisi, `Abdullah b. Ahmad b. Hanbal and
Ibn Hibban
Muḥammad ibn Hibbān al-Bustī () (c. 270–354/884–965) was a Muslim Arab scholar, Muhaddith, historian and author of well-known works, “Sheikh of Greater Khorasan, Khorasan”.
Biography
Ibn Hibban was born in 270 AH (884 CE) in Bust or ...
(d. 965). His travels are said to have spanned a period of thirty years and took him to places such as
Marw
Merv ( tk, Merw, ', مرو; fa, مرو, ''Marv''), also known as the Merve Oasis, formerly known as Alexandria ( grc-gre, Ἀλεξάνδρεια), Antiochia in Margiana ( grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐν τῇ Μαργιανῇ) and ...
,
Bukhara
Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, Tarāblus,
Nisapur
Nishapur or officially Romanized as Neyshabur ( fa, ;Or also "نیشاپور" which is closer to its original and historic meaning though it is less commonly used by modern native Persian speakers. In Persian poetry, the name of this city is wri ...
and
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
. He collected an extraordinary amount of ''hadith'' in his travels during which he supposedly encountered 1,700 ''shuyūkh'' (teachers) and returned to Isfahān with roughly forty loads of books. The Imām Abu Ishāq ibn Hamzah commented that he did not find a peer among scholars of the stature of Ibn Mandah. The Sheikh of
Herat
Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safēd ...
, Isma`il Ansari (d. 375 A.H) said that Ibn Mandah was a chieftain of his age.
Legacy
Ibn Manda married late in life and had four sons, ‘Abdallah (d. 1070), ‘Abdal-Rahmān (d. 1078), ‘Abdal-Wahhāb (d. 475/1082) and the little known ‘Abdal-Rahīm. Some of Abū Abdullāh's notable students were
Al-Hakim Nishapuri
Abu Abd-Allah Muhammad ibn Abd-Allah al-Hakim al-Nishapuri ( fa, أبو عبدالله محمد بن عبدالله الحاكم النيسابوري; 933 - 1014 CE), also known as ''Ibn al-Bayyiʿ'', was a Persian Sunni scholar and the leadin ...
and Ibn Mardaway (Mardūya) (323-410/935-1019). Abu-Abdullāh died in
Dhul-Hijja
Dhu al-Hijja ( ar, ذُو ٱلْحِجَّة, translit=Ḏū al-Ḥijja, ), also spelled Zu al-Hijja, is the twelfth and final month in the Islamic calendar. It is a very sacred month in the Islamic calendar, one in which the ''Hajj, Ḥajj'' (P ...
in 395 A.H (September 1005 CE). What follows is a list of some of the individual scholars associated with the Ibn Manda family:
*Abū Zakariyya, Yahyā ibn Manda (great-grandfather)
*Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Mandah (d. 301 AH: 914 CE) (grandfather)
*Ishāq ibn Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Mandah (d. 341 AH: 952 CE) (father)
*Abū Abdullah, Muhammad ibn Ishāq ibn Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Mandah (310–395 AH: 922–1005 CE)
*Abu l-Qasim, ‘Abdal Rahman b. Muhammad b. Ishaq (381–470 AH: 991–1078 CE) (son). He traveled to Baghdad in 406/1015, and visited Wāsit, Mecca, Nishapur, Hamadhān and so on. He started teaching in 407/1016 and authored many works, among them, it seems, a ''History of Mecca''. He was praised for his staunch orthodoxy and uncompromising stand against "innovators".
*Abū Zakariyyā’, Yahyā ibn ‘Abdal Wahhab ibn Mandah (b. 434–511 AH/1043-1118 CE) (grandson). He enjoyed a lasting reputation as a historian. His ''History of Isfahan'' may have been based on that of his grandfather, and the latter’s list of sahāba who lived 120 years may have been remade by him. The scholarly activity and renown of the family appear to have come to an end at this point.
Academic Works
His academic publications were primarily concerned history, biography and hadīth. He wrote on the history (seerah) of the
Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monoth ...
and, like his grandson, Yahyā b. ‘Abdal-Wahhāb, composed a ''History of Isfahan''. Of his works there survive his comments on certain verses of the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
and some Prophetic traditions, under the title of ''ar-Radd ' ala al-Jahmiyya'' (Refutation of the Jahmites), but it may be noted that his son, ‘Abdal-Rahmān, is credited with a similar if, apparently different work. Other additional works include ''at-Tawhīd wa-Ma’rifat Asmā’ Allah'' and parts of his ''Ma’rifat al-sahāba'', which are both preserved in
Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
, and a treatise on "The men around Muhammad who lived 120 years’.
Dispute with Abu Nu'aym
Ibn Manda is reported to have been involved in a vicious dispute with his fellow ‘''
Muhaddith
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 ...
'' of the Age" and hometown rival,
Abu Nu’aym al-Isfahani (d. 1039), due to their differences in ''
madhhab
A ( ar, مذهب ', , "way to act". pl. مَذَاهِب , ) is a school of thought within ''fiqh'' (Islamic jurisprudence).
The major Sunni Mathhab are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali.
They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE an ...
'' and theological contentions. He denounced Abu Nu’aym on account of his supposed leanings toward ''
kalām
''ʿIlm al-Kalām'' ( ar, عِلْم الكَلام, literally "science of discourse"), usually foreshortened to ''Kalām'' and sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology", is the philosophical study of Islamic doc ...
'' and banished him from the great congregational mosque of Isfahān, which was then dominated by Ibn Manda's
Hanbali
The Hanbali school ( ar, ٱلْمَذْهَب ٱلْحَنۢبَلِي, al-maḏhab al-ḥanbalī) is one of the four major traditional Sunni schools (''madhahib'') of Islamic jurisprudence. It is named after the Arab scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal ...
faction. Nevertheless, Ibn Manda taught ''hadīth'' to, and had an extremely close teacher-pupil relationship with,
Abū Mansur Ma’mar ibn Ahmad al-Isfahānī (d. 1027), who was a prominent Hanbali
Sufi
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
and contemporary of Abu Nu’aym in Isfahan who praised Ibn Manda as the model scholar of his age.
[Karamustafa, Ahmet T. (2007) ''Sufism: The Formative Period'', University of California Press, ]
See also
*
List of Islamic scholars
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manda, Ibn
Hadith scholars
10th-century Muslim scholars of Islam
Sunni Muslim scholars
922 births
10th-century jurists
11th-century jurists
11th-century Iranian writers
10th-century Iranian writers
1004 deaths