Urwah ibn Zubayr

ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām al-Asadī ( ar , عروة بن الزبير بن العوام الأسدي, ) was among the seven '' fuqaha'' (jurists) who formulated the fiqh of Medina in the time of the Tabi‘in and one of the Muslim historians.

Biography

Family

He was the son of Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and Asmā' bint Abu Bakr. He was also the brother of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr and the nephew of Aisha bint Abu Bakr.

His most loved son was Hisham ibn Urwah.

He purportedly built a residential complex on some farming land on the outskirts of Medina, some 3 km west of Masjid an-Nabawi.

Uthman's era

He was born in the early years of the caliphate of Uthman in Medina and lived through the civil war which occurred after Uthman's martyrdom. Although his brother Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr wrested the rule from Abd al-Malik, it is unknown if he assisted him. He devoted himself to the study of fiqh and hadith and had the greatest knowledge of hadiths narrated from Aishah. He said, "Before Aishah died, I saw that I had become one of four authorities. I said, 'If she dies, there will be no hadith which will be lost from those she knows. I have memorized all of them."

Legacy

He was one of the seven fuqaha, or jurists, of Medina.

Works

Urwah wrote many books, but destroyed them the day of the Battle of al-Harrah. He later had a feeling of regret, saying "I would rather have them in my possession than my family and property twice over." At the same time, he quashed any fears that they might become sources of authority alongside the Qur'an.

He is also known to have written one of the first writings in the area of the biography of Muhammad, known as the ''Tract of Seerah''. This is not extant either but is known through Ibn Ishaq.

Alfred Guillaume writes: mong precursors of Ibn Ishaq's SiraA man of much greater importance was 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr b. al- 'Awwam (23-94). He and his brother 'Abdullah were in close contact with the prophet's widow nd their aunt'A’isha. He was a recognized authority on the early history of Islam, and the Umayyad caliph 'Abdu’l-Malik applied to him when he needed information on that subject. Again, it is uncertain whether he wrote a book, but the many traditions that are handed down in his name by Ibn Ishaq and other writers justify the assertion that he was the founder of Islamic history.

Hadith

Among his narrations are:
His transmitted narrations from:
*Aisha

His narrations are transmitted by:
*Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri

Non-Muslim view

Gregor Schoeler calls him as the first head of what he calls a "Madinese historical school," who began the systematic organization of material into books (tasnīf)

Early Islam scholars

See also

*The Seven Fuqaha of Medina
*Sunni view of the Sahaba
*List of pre-modern Arab scientists and scholars

References

also:
*''The Four Imams'', Muhammad Abu Zahrah, Dar al-Taqwa Publications

External links

Biodata at MuslimScholars.info


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20131111202907/http://www.at-tawhid.net/article-urwah-ibn-az-zubayr-ibn-al-awwam-m-94-99538080.html Biography of Imam 'Urwah Ibn Az Zubayr by at-tawhid.net

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urwah Ibn Zubayr
Tabi‘un
Sunni imams
Tabi‘un hadith narrators
Arab Muslim historians of Islam
713 deaths
Abu Bakr family
Year of birth unknown
Scholars from the Umayyad Caliphate
Banu Asad (Quraysh)
8th-century jurists
7th-century Arabs
8th-century Arabs