Abū Abd al-Raḥmān Abdallāh Ibn Lahīʿa ibn ʿUqba ibn Furʿān ibn Rabīʿa ibn Thawbān al-Ḥaḍramī al-Aʿdūlī () (96–174 AH) (714/5–790 CE) more commonly known as Ibn Lahi'a (), was an

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

historian, scholar of ''

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

'' and '' Qadi'' (; ) of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. Famed for being the first judge of Egypt to be appointed directly by a caliph.

Biography

Nothing is known about Ibn Lahi'a's early years of his life, except that he was probably born in Egypt in the year 714/5 to a family of

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

i origin. As a historian and a collector of hadith, Ibn Lahi'a gained fame around Egypt, which at the time was part of the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...

(750–1258). Due to his great reputation of being a respected learned man among his contemporaries, the Abbasid caliph

al-Mansur Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Manṣūr (; ‎; 714 – 6 October 775) usually known simply as by his laqab al-Manṣūr () was the second Abbasid caliph, reigning from 754 to 775 succeeding his brother al-Saffah (). He is known ...

() personally appointed him to the position of ''Qadi'' of Egypt, which he occupied from 772 to 780. The caliph also issued him a payment of 30 ''dinars'' per month as a salary. He died in the year 790. According to the massive encyclopedic work ''Siyar A'lam al-Nubala (; ) of Al-Dhahabi (d. 1348), Ibn Lahia's library and the books within, were burned in a fire which occurred in the year 786.

Assessment

According to the historian Pavel Pavlovich, Ibn Lahi'a is among "the most disparaged second- slamiccentury traditionists". The 9th-century historian

Ibn Sa'd Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd () and nicknamed ''Scribe of Waqidi'' (''Katib al-Waqidi''), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 784/785 CE (168 AH) and di ...

considered him a ''da'if'' ('weak') authority, while al-Juzajani dismissed traditions emanating from him as "unreliable", invalid for use in legal arguments or for transmission. The basis for much of the Islamic scholarly criticism of Ibn Lahi'a is frequent omission of one to three informants in his ''isnads'' (chains of transmission of historical information). The burning of his books in his house fire was dismissed by

Yahya ibn Ma'in Yahya ibn Ma'in (; 774-847) was a classical Islamic scholar in the field of hadith. He was a close friend of Ahmad ibn Hanbal for much of his life. Ibn Ma'in is known to have spent all of his inheritance on seeking hadith to the extent he becam ...

(d. 847) as the justification for Ibn Lahi'a's omissions.

References

Bibliography

* {{Authority control 714 births 790 deaths 8th-century historians from the Abbasid Caliphate 8th-century Arab people Hadith scholars

Biography

Assessment

See also

References

Bibliography