Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Thābit ibn Aḥmad ibn Māhdī al-Shāfiʿī, commonly known as al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī ( ar, الخطيب البغدادي) or "the lecturer from
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
" (10 May 1002 – 5 September 1071; 392 AH-463 AH), was a
Sunni Muslim 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 researc ...
and
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
.
Biography
Early life
Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi was born on 24 Jumadi' al-Thani, 392 A.H/May 10, 1002, in Hanikiya, a village south of Baghdad. He was the son of a preacher and he began studying at an early age with his father and other
shaykhs. Over time he studied other sciences but his primary interest was
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 approva ...
. At the age of 20 his father died and he went to
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 han ...
to search for hadith. In 1024 he set out on a second journey to
Nishapur and he collected more hadith in
Rey,
Amol and
Isfahan. It is unclear how long he traveled but his own accounts have him back in Baghdad by 1028. While he was an authority on hadith it was his preaching that led to his fame that would help him later in life. One biographer,
Al-Dhahabi
Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Islamic historia ...
, said that contemporary teachers and preachers of tradition would usually submit what they had collected to Al-Baghdadi before they used them in their lectures or sermons.
[''Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition''. Sellheim, R. Brill online. 2009.]
Hanbalis
Al-Baghdadī originally belonged to the
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 ...
school of
Fiqh
''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh.
The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and ...
(jurisprudence religious law) but later adopted
Shafi'i
The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...
school of jurisprudence.
It is unclear if his change of allegiance followed a trip to Nahrawan in 1038, but in any case it provoked hostility from some Hanbalites. Despite the threat, under the protection of Caliph
Al-Qa'im al-Baghdadī lectured on ḥadīth in the Manṣūr Mosque.
Damascus
When a rebellion in 1059 led by the Turkish general
Basasiri
Abuʾl-Ḥārith Arslān al-Muẓaffar al-Basāsīrī (died 15 January 1059) was a Turkic peoples, Turkish slave-soldier (''mamlūk'') who rose to become a military commander of the Buwayhid dynasty in Iraq (region), Iraq. When the Buwayhids were ...
deposed Caliph Al-Qa'im, and deprived Al-Baghdadi of his protection in Baghdad, he left for
Damascus and there spent eight years as a lecturer at the Umayyad Mosque until a major controversy erupted. According to his biographers,
Yaqut,
Sibt ibn al-Jawzi
Shams al-Din Abu al-Muzaffar Yusuf ibn Kizoghlu (c. 581AH/1185–654AH/1256), famously known as Sibṭ ibn al-Jawzī ( ar, سبط ابن الجوزي ) was a notable preacher and historian.
Title
He is the grandson of the great Hanbali scholar A ...
,
al-Dhahabi
Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Islamic historia ...
, as-Safadi, and
Ibn Taghribirdi
Jamal al-Din Yusuf bin al-Amir Sayf al-Din Taghribirdi ( ar, جمال الدين يوسف بن الأمير سيف الدين تغري بردي), or Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf ibn Taghrī-Birdī, or Ibn Taghribirdi (2 February 1411— 5 June 1470; ...
this involved al-Baghdadi's relationship with a youth, who, apparently had travelled with him from Baghdad.
[Controversy and Its Effects in the Biographical Tradition of Al-Khatib Al-Baghdadi. Douglas, Fedwa Malti. ''Studia Islamica'' 46. 1977.] Yaqut relates that when news of the controversy reached the ruler of Damascus, he ordered that al-Baghdadi should be killed. However the police chief, a
Sunni, realizing that to follow the order would lead to a backlash against the
Shi'i
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...
, warned al-Baghdadi to flee to the protection of Shari ibn Abi al-Hasan al-'Alawi.
Al-Baghdadi spent about a year exiled in
Sur, Lebanon before he returned to Baghdad, where he died in September 1071. He was buried next to
Bishr al-Hafi
Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith () better known as Bishr al-Ḥāfī (Bishr the Barefoot) () was a Muslim saint born near Merv in about 767 C.E. He converted and studied Muslim tradition under Al-Fozail ibn Iyaz. Bishr became famous as one of the grea ...
.
Controversy over al-Baghdadi's works
Biographers
Sibt ibn al-Jawzi
Shams al-Din Abu al-Muzaffar Yusuf ibn Kizoghlu (c. 581AH/1185–654AH/1256), famously known as Sibṭ ibn al-Jawzī ( ar, سبط ابن الجوزي ) was a notable preacher and historian.
Title
He is the grandson of the great Hanbali scholar A ...
,
Ibn Kathīr, and
Ibn Taghribirdi
Jamal al-Din Yusuf bin al-Amir Sayf al-Din Taghribirdi ( ar, جمال الدين يوسف بن الأمير سيف الدين تغري بردي), or Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf ibn Taghrī-Birdī, or Ibn Taghribirdi (2 February 1411— 5 June 1470; ...
wrote that the original was a work by as-Suri which al-Baghdādī had extended.
Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī
Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known f ...
attributed the authorship to as-Surī's sister and accused al-Baghdādī of plagiarism, whereas Ibn Kathīr made no accusation of plagiarism, but attributed the original to as-Suri's wife.
Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi accused him of dishonesty in relation to the
Ḥadīths.
Works
Ibn Hajar declared his works influential in the field of the
Science of hadith
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 ...
and
Hadith terminology
Hadith terminology ( ar, مصطلح الحديث, muṣṭalaḥu l-ḥadīth) is the body of terminology in Islam which specifies the acceptability of the sayings (''hadith'') attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad by other early Islamic fig ...
saying, "Scarce is the discipline from the disciplines of the science of ḥadīth on which he has not written a book." He then quoted Abu Bakr ibn Nuqtah, a
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 ...
scholar, as saying, “Every objective person knows that the scholars of ḥadīth s coming after al-Khaṭīb are indebted to his works.” Over 80 titles have been attributed to al-Baghdādī.
Selected list of works.
* ''Ta’rīkh Madīnat al-Salām'': or ''Ta’rīkh Baghdād wa Dhaīlih wa-l-Mustafād'' () 'The History of Baghdād,' or ''Madīnat as-Salām'' ('City of Peace') and Appendix of Scholars - 23 volumes
* ''al-Kifaya fi ma'rifat usul 'ilm al-riwaya'': an early work dealing with
Hadith terminology
Hadith terminology ( ar, مصطلح الحديث, muṣṭalaḥu l-ḥadīth) is the body of terminology in Islam which specifies the acceptability of the sayings (''hadith'') attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad by other early Islamic fig ...
, which
Ibn Hajar praised as influential in the field
* ''al-Djami' li-akhlak al-rawi wa-adab al-sami''
* ''Takyid al-'ilm'': Questions whether putting traditions into writing is forbidden
* ''Sharaf ashab al-hadith'': Centers around the significance of traditionalists
* ''al-Sabik wa 'l-lahik'': dealing with
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 approva ...
narrators of a particular type
* ''al-Mu'tanif fi takmilat al-Mu'talif wa 'l-mukhtalif'': Correct spelling and pronunciation of names
* ''al-Muttafik wa 'l-muftarik''
* ''Talkhis al-mutashabih fi 'l-rasm wa-himayat ma ashkala minhu min nawadir al-tashif wa 'l-wahm''
* ''al-Asma' al-mubhama fi 'l-anba' al-muhkama'': identifying unnamed individuals mentioned in
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 approva ...
* ''al-Rihla fi talab al-hadith''
* ''Iktida' al-'ilm al-'amal''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Khatib Al-Baghdadi
1002 births
1071 deaths
Writers from Baghdad
Sunni Muslim scholars
Hadith scholars
Shafi'is
Asharis
11th-century Muslim scholars of Islam
11th-century jurists