Waki' ibn al-Jarrah
Abū Sufyān Wakīʿ ibn al-Jarrāḥ ibn Malīḥ al-Ruʾāsī al-Kilābī al-Kufī (745/47–812) was a prominent hadith scholar based in Kufa. He was one of the principal teachers of the major Sunni Muslim jurist Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
Waki' ibn al-Jarrah | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Born | 745–746 |
| Died | 812 (aged 65–66) |
| Religion | Islam |
| Children | Sufyan |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Main interest(s) | Hadith |
| Notable work(s) | al-Sunan, al-Marifa Wa al-Tarikh, al-Zuhd |
Origins
Waki was born in Kufa,[1] or in the village of Ustuwa near Nishapur,[2] in 128/129 AH (745–747 CE).[3] His father al-Jarrah ibn Malih belonged to the Ubayd ibn Ru'as clan of the Banu Kilab tribe and was born in Soghdia, while his mother, a daughter of Amra ibn Shaddad ibn Thawr of the same clan, was born in Bukhara;[2][4] the Ubayd ibn Ru'as had been settled in Kufa following the Muslim conquest of Iraq in the 630s.[5] The family was well off and al-Jarrah was the supervisor of the bayt al-darb (mint) at Rayy,[2] before being appointed head of the bayt al-mal (treasury) in Baghdad under the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809).[1][2]
Career
Schooled in the Islamic religious sciences, especially the hadith (traditions attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad), Waki became a leading traditionist (muhaddith) in his hometown, known for transmitting numerous hadiths based on his memorizations.[6][7] Despite the errors of transmission attributed to him, Waki was generally regarded as the best muhaddith of his time.[1] His refusal of an appointment as qadi (head judge) by Harun al-Rashid out of concern of dependence on the state further contributed to his reputation for piety and ascetism.[1]
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani has mentioned a long list of his teachers and students in his work Tahdhib al-tahdhib. He transmitted hadiths on the authority of the earlier Muslim scholars Isma'il ibn Abi Khalid, Ikrima ibn Ammar, al-Awza'i, al-Amash, and Malik ibn Anas, as well as his father.[1][7] Al-Dhahabi in his Siyar a`lam al-nubala has listed the names of about 20 teachers of Waki out of which the best known were Sufyan al-Thawri, Shu'ba ibn al-Ḥajjāj and Ibn Jurayj.[8] He was among the most important teachers of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, founder and namesake of the Hanbali school of Sunni Muslim jurisprudence (fiqh).[9] Waki himself was classified as a follower of the Hanafi fiqh of Sunni Islam.[10]
Waki built a mosque in Kufa, installing as its imam a tribesman of his, Humayd ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Humayd al-Ru'asi.[2]
Death and descendants
On his return from the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), Waki died in the Fayd oasis in 197 AH (812).[3] His son Sufyan was also a Kufan traditionist, though of poor reputation. Sufyan died at an old age in 861.[11][12]
Literary works
Although Waki was popularly held to have never possessed a book, he authored a number of works:[1]
- Tafsir al-Quran
- al-Sunan
- al-Marifa Wa al-Tarikh
- al-Musannaf (cited by Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani)[1]
- al-Zuhd (a copy of which is preserved in the al-Zahiriyah Library Library of Damascus)[1]
- Kitab al-salat, of which just one page survived on a papyrus leaf[13]
References
- Khoury 2002, p. 101.
- "Wakīʿ b. al-Jarrāḥ: Biographical Reports". Al-Ikhbar: Translations of Classical Arabic Texts. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
- Rosenthal 1989, p. 200, note 242.
- Szilagyi 2009, p. 148, note 64.
- Caskel 1966, p. 560.
- Salem 2016, p. 21, note 64.
- Spectorsky 2013, p. 87.
- Al-Dhahabi. Siyar a`lam al-nubala, Volume 9. p. 143.
- Spectorsky 2013, pp. 86–87.
- Hurvitz 2002, p. 51.
- Rosenthal 1989, p. 176, note 66.
- Blankinship 1993, p. 134, note 726.
- Tillier, Mathieu; Vanthieghem, Naïm (2018-09-30). "Une œuvre inconnue de Wakīʿ b. al-Ǧarrāḥ (m. 197/812 ?) et sa transmission en Égypte au IIIe/IXe siècle". Arabica. 65 (5–6): 675–700. doi:10.1163/15700585-12341510. ISSN 0570-5398.
Bibliography
- Blankinship, Khalid Yahya, ed. (1993). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XI: The Challenge to the Empires. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0851-3.
- Caskel, Werner (1966). Ğamharat an-nasab: Das genealogische Werk des His̆ām ibn Muḥammad al-Kalbī, Volume II (in German). Leiden: Brill.
- Hurvitz, Nimrod (2002). The Formation of Hanbalism: Piety into Power. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-7007-1507-X.
- Khoury, R. G. (2002). "Wakīʿ b. al-Djarrāḥ b Malīḥ". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume XI: W–Z (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 101. ISBN 978-90-04-12756-2.
- Rosenthal, Franz, ed. (1989). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume I: General Introduction and from the Creation to the Flood. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-562-0.
- Salem, Feryal (2016). The Emergence of Early Sufi Piety and Sunnī Scholasticism: ʿAbdallāh b. al-Mubarak and the Formation of Sunni Identity in the Second Islamic Century. Leiden and Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-31029-2.
- Spectorsky, Susan A. (2013). "Ahmad b. Hanbal (d. 243/855)". In Powers, David S.; Spectorsky, Susan A.; Arabi, Oussama (eds.). Islamic Legal Thought: A Compendium of Muslim Jurists. Leiden and Boston: Brill. pp. 85–106. ISBN 978-90-04-25452-7.
- Szilagyi, K. (2009). "A Prophet like Jesus? Christians and Muslims Debating Muhammad's Death". Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 36.