Qatada ibn Di'amah al-Sadusi or Abu Khattab () (died 117 AH/735 AD) was a

mufassir Tafsir ( ; ) refers to an exegesis, or commentary, of the Quran. An author of a ''tafsir'' is a ' (; plural: ). A Quranic ''tafsir'' attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, interpretation, context or commentary for clear understanding ...

and

Muhaddith A muhaddith () is a scholar specialized in the study, collection, and interpretation of hadiths, which are the recorded sayings, actions, and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad. The role of a muhaddith is central to the science of hadith (ʻilm a ...

who lived in

Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Life

He came from the clan of Sadus, from the northern Arab tribe of Banu Shayban. Little is known about his life, and the earliest accounts of him were compiled by

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 ...

in his "''Book of the Major Classes".'' He was blind; he relied on his memory in passing on his knowledge in the fields 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 ...

tafsir Tafsir ( ; ) refers to an exegesis, or commentary, of the Quran. An author of a ''tafsir'' is a ' (; plural: ). A Quranic ''tafsir'' attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, interpretation, context or commentary for clear understanding ...

Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ''ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy'') is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existe ...

and

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

, which was already considered proverbial in his lifetime. He was a student and a companion of

al-Hasan al-Basri Abi Sa'id al-Hasan ibn Yasar al-Basri, often referred to as al-Hasan al-Basri, was an ancient Muslim preacher, ascetic, theologian, exegete, scholar, and judge. Born in Medina in 642,Mourad, Suleiman A., “al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī”, in: ''Encycl ...

for several years. According to some reports mentioned by al-Mizzī and

al-Dhahabī 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 Athari theologia ...

in their scholarly biographies, Qatāda died of the plague in

Wasit Wasit (, ) was an early Islamic city in Iraq. It was founded in the 8th century by the Umayyad viceroy of Iraq, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, to serve as the region's seat and as the garrison of the Syrian troops who enforced Umayyad rule there. It was ...

in 117 (Hijri Calendar)/735 A.D.

Works

* His tafsir writings were not preserved. Only a small fragment of three leaves, containing the abrogation of verses from the

Koran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

and documenting the study of the script in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

on the colophon in 1177, is available and was published in 1988: ''Kitāb an-nāsikh wal-mansūkh / كتاب الناسخ والمنسوخ / The abrogating and the abrogated''. In

al-Tabari Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present- ...

numerous excerpts, specifying the tradition paths obtained from his commentary on the Koran. Both his Koran exegesis as well as his work on the abrogation were known in the 15th century; Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalānī lists them in his "scholarly encyclopedia", in a collection of titles of those works to which he had the tradition of inheritance. * Kitāb al-manāsik (كتاب المناسك), ''The book of pilgrimage ceremonies'' is in the tradition of his pupil Sa'īd ibn Abī'Arūba (died 773) and was first published in 2000 in Beirut.Ed. 'Āmir Ḥasan Ṣabrī. Dār al-baschā'ir al-islāmiyya. The work contains both explanations of Qatada regarding the ritual aspects of the pilgrimage and its exegesis of those Koranic verses on the pilgrimage ceremonies, their stations and the importance of the al-Haram al-Makki.

References

People from Basra Hadith scholars Iraqi genealogists Blind writers Linguists from Iraq 8th-century Arab people Tabi‘un hadith narrators 735 deaths Year of birth unknown {{Islam-scholar-stub