Ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī’s (d. 354/965) contribution to the science of ḥadīth transmission

Bin Muhammad Yusoff, Muhammad Fawwaz (2017) Ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī’s (d. 354/965) contribution to the science of ḥadīth transmission. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This research is based upon a collection of generally unutilized ḥadīth literature, and is not only concerned with a study of “authenticity” of the ḥadīth, but is also concerned with the science of ḥadīth transmission as advanced by the master critic, Ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī (d. 354/965). Although the focus of modern ḥadīth scholarship has placed greater emphasis on transmitter evaluation of the second/eight and the third/ninth centuries, it still the case that a great part of the reliability of ḥadīth transmitter was not simply adopted by ḥadīth critics of the fourth/tenth century, as Ibn Ḥibbān has distinctly demonstrated. By scrutinizing Ibn Ḥibbān’s introduction to his al-Taqāsim wa al-Anwāʿ (“The Divisions and the Categories”) famously known as Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān, we are afforded a unique insight into the application of his transmitter evaluation, authentic ḥadīth criterion and the concept of khabar and sunna. As the title suggests, this was a very clear conception of the degree to which his work is a collection dealing with the body of ḥadīth by the divisions and the categories which are interpreted with legal theory.
Furthermore, there is no consensus on the topic of evaluating persona and it is not germane among Muslim scholars. Thus, we present a synopsis of the history of ḥadīth criticism until the time of Ibn Ḥibbān as well as the techniques that the early critics employed to determine the evaluation of transmitters. Even though a comprehensive analysis of whole of Ibn Ḥibbān’s biographical dictionary of impugned transmitters (namely Maʿrifāt al-Majrūḥīn wa al-Dhuʿafāʾ min al-Muḥaddithīn) would be exceedingly beneficial, this study only concentrates on the introduction of the book. Our discursive approach has pointed out the state of disagreement of transmitter evaluation that occured in the fourth/tenth century and the compelling contribution of Ibn Ḥibbān’s works to the subsequent literature on the science of ḥadīth transmission.
The final part of this study is concerned with some of the ways in which Ibn Ḥibbān has presented the biography of the Prophet and the early scholars in the Islamic tradition. The task involves a short analysis of the purposes, history, organization, total of figures, and basic strategies used in Ibn Ḥibbān’s biographical dictionaries. Apart from biographical material of reliable transmitters in the Ṣaḥīḥ, it manifests clearly that Ibn Ḥibbān’s approval of a transmitter is due to the inclusion both in Kitāb al-Thiqāt and Mashāhīr al-ʿUlamāʾ al-Amṣār. The ḥadīth transmitters whose biographies are contained in the Thiqāt and the Mashāhīr are thus presented as the successors of the Prophet through the arrangement of ṭabaqāt. In this manner, Ibn Ḥibbān could reveal of the genealogy of authority since both sources yield information of reliable transmitters who lived during a period of 300 years after the Prophet’s death.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Ibn Ḥibbān, ḥadīth, authenticity, Ṣaḥīḥ, Sunna, Majrūḥīn, Thiqāt, Prophet, Muhammad, Muḥaddithīn, Dhuʿafāʾ, Mashāhīr, transmission, modern ḥadīth scholarship, khabar, Mashāhīr al-ʿUlamāʾ al-Amṣār, Kitāb al-Thiqāt, Maʿrifāt al-Majrūḥīn wa al-Dhuʿafāʾ min al-Muḥaddithīn, Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Taqāsim wa al-Anwāʿ, ʿilm al-jarḥ wa al-taʿdīl, isnād, sanad, matn, ʿilm al-rijāl al-ḥadīth, sunan, science of ḥadīth transmission, science of ḥadīth, Rijāl Criticism, Ṭabaqāt, Biographical Dictionaries, Islam.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc; D History General and Old World > DS Asia; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > Theology and Religious Studies
• Supervisor's Name: Ridgeon, Dr. Lloyd and Yazaki, Dr. Saeko
• Date of Award: 2017
• Depositing User: Dr Muhammad Fawwaz Bin Muhammad Yusoff
• Unique ID: glathesis:2017-8481
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 10 Oct 2017 10:08
• Last Modified: 10 Oct 2017 10:10
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/8481