Biography of the hafiz At-Tabarani (Sulayman ibn Ahmad)

86 - At-Tabarani Abu al-Qasim Sulayman ibn Ahmad ibn Ayyub *

He is the imam, the hafiz, the trustworthy one, the tireless pilgrim, the great traveler, the hadith master of Islam, the scholar among centenarians, Abu al-Qasim Sulayman ibn Ahmad ibn Ayyub ibn Mutayr al-Lakhmi, the Syrian, At-Tabarani, author of the Three Mu'jam works.

His birth: in the city of Acre, in the month of Safar of the year 260, and his mother was from Acre.

His first audition (of hadith) took place in the year 73, and his father traveled with him, taking care of him, for he was a hadith scholar, among the companions of Duhaym. His first journey thus took place in the year 75; he remained on his travels and in meeting the transmitters for sixteen years; he wrote from everyone he met, excelled in this field, gathered and compiled, and he lived a very long time,

and the hadith scholars crowded around him and came to him from all the regions.

He met: the companions of Yazid ibn Harun, of Rawh ibn Ubada, Abu Asim, Hajjaj ibn Muhammad, and Abd al-Razzak, and he never stopped writing until he wrote from his own contemporaries.

He heard from: Hashim ibn Marthad al-Tabarani; Ahmad ibn Mas'ud al-Khayyat transmitted to him in Jerusalem in the year 74, from Amr ibn Abi Salama al-Tinnisi; he heard in Tabariyya (Tiberias) from: Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Lihyani, the companion of Adam; and in Qaysariyya (Caesarea) from: Amr ibn Thawr and Ibrahim ibn Abi Sufyan, both companions of al-Firyabi; and he heard from about a thousand sheikhs or more.

He narrated from: Abu Zur'a al-Dimashqi; Ishaq ibn Ibrahim al-Dabri; Idris ibn Ja'far al-Attar; Bishr ibn Musa; Hafs ibn Umar Sanja; Ali ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Baghawi, the resident of the sacred precincts; Miqdam ibn Dawud al-Ru'ayni; Yahya ibn Ayyub al-Allaf; Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Sa'id ibn Abi Maryam; Ahmad ibn Abd al-Wahhab al-Hawti; Ahmad ibn Ibrahim ibn Fil al-Balisi; Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Busri; Ahmad ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Nubayt al-Ashja'i, the author of that interpolated copy; Ahmad ibn Ishaq al-Khashshab; Ahmad ibn Dawud al-Basri, then al-Makki; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Hamza al-Batalhi; Ahmad ibn Khalid al-Halabi, whom he met there in the year 278; and from: Ahmad ibn Ziyad al-Raqqi the cobbler, companion of Hajjaj the One-Eyed; Ibrahim ibn Suwayd al-Shibami; Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Buzza al-San'ani; al-Hasan ibn Abd al-A'la al-Bawsi, both companions of Abd al-Razzak; Bakr ibn Sahl al-Dimyati; Hubbush ibn Rizq Allah the Egyptian; Abu al-Zinba' Rawh ibn al-Faraj al-Qattan; al-Abbas ibn al-Fadl al-Asfati; Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal; Abd Allah ibn al-Husayn al-Masisi; and Abd al-Rahim ibn Abd Allah al-Barqi: he heard the Sira from him, but he erred, calling him "Ahmad"

after the name of his brother; Ali ibn Abd al-Samad, which grieved him; Abu Muslim al-Kajji; and Ishaq ibn Ibrahim the Egyptian, the Qattan;

and Idris ibn Abd al-Karim al-Haddad; Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Ramli al-Qalanisi; al-Hasan ibn Sahl al-Mujawwiz; Zakariyya ibn Hamduwayh al-Saffar; Uthman ibn Umar al-Dabbi; Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Tammar; Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Mundhir al-Qazzaz, companion of Sa'id ibn Amir al-Duba'i; Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Ghalabi; Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sa'igh; Abu Alatha Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Khalid al-Harrani; Muhammad ibn Asad ibn Yazid al-Isbahani, who transmitted to him from Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi; Muhammad ibn Mu'adh Darran; Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Nasa'i; Ubayd Allah ibn Rumahis; and Harun ibn Mallul.

He heard: in the Two Sanctuaries, in Yemen, in the cities of Syria, in Egypt, Baghdad, Kufa, Basra, Isfahan, Khuzestan, and elsewhere; then he settled in Isfahan, where he resided for about sixty years spreading knowledge and compiling; and he only reached Iraq after finishing with Egypt, Syria, the Hijaz and Yemen; otherwise, had he gone to Iraq first, he would have attained isnads of great elevation.

Those who narrated from him: Abu Khalifa al-Jumahi and the hafiz Ibn Uqda, both of them among his senior teachers; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Saghghaf; Ibn Manda; Abu Bakr ibn Mardawayh; Abu Umar Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Bastami; Abu Nu'aym al-Isbahani; Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Jarudi; Abu Sa'id al-Naqqash; Abu Bakr ibn Abi Ali al-Dhakwani; Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Azdi; al-Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn al-Marzuban; Abu al-Husayn ibn Fadhshah; Abu Sa'd Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad al-Saffar; Ma'mar ibn Ahmad ibn Ziyad; Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Ribati; al-Fadl ibn Ubayd Allah ibn Shahriyar; Abd al-Wahid ibn Ahmad al-Batirqani; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Isbahani; Ali ibn Yahya ibn Abdakawayh; Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Shamma; Bishr ibn Muhammad al-Mihani; and many people, the last of them to die being Abu

Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Rida the merchant; then Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr al-Dhakwani lived after him, narrating from At-Tabarani by license (ijaza); he died in the year 442 or 443, and Ibn Rida died in the year 440.

Among his works: the Mu'jam as-Saghir, in one volume, one hadith from each sheikh; the Mu'jam al-Kabir, which is the mu'jam of the names of the Companions, their biographies and what they narrated, but it does not contain the Musnad of Abu Hurayra and did not encompass the hadiths of the most prolific Companions, in eight volumes; and the Mu'jam al-Awsat, upon his most prolific sheikhs and the rare hadiths he possesses from each one, making five volumes.

At-Tabarani, as far as has reached us, used to say about the (Mu'jam al-)Awsat: "This book is my soul."

Abu Bakr ibn Abi Ali said: "My father asked Abu al-Qasim At-Tabarani about the abundance of his hadiths, and he said: I used to sleep on dung heaps for thirty years."

Abu Nu'aym said: "At-Tabarani arrived in Isfahan in the year 290, then left, then came back and resided there for sixty years as a hadith teacher."

Sulayman ibn Ibrahim the hafiz said: "Abu Ahmad al-Assal the qadi said: When I have heard twenty thousand hadiths from At-Tabarani, and Abu Ishaq ibn Hamza has heard thirty thousand from him, and Abu al-Shaykh forty thousand, our need will be fulfilled."

I (adh-Dhahabi) say: "These were the sheikhs of Isfahan in the time of At-Tabarani."

The hafiz Abu Nu'aym said: "I heard Ahmad ibn Bundar say: I entered al-Askar in the year 288 and attended the session of Abdan; he came out to dictate, and the

repeater kept saying to him: Do you intend to dictate? And he would say: Until At-Tabarani arrives."

He said: "Abu al-Qasim arrived a while later, wearing one izâr and carrying another, with booklets, followed by about twenty strangers from various lands, until he filled them with hadith."

Abu Bakr ibn Mardawayh said in his (Tarihi) History: "When At-Tabarani came for the second time to Isfahan in the year 310, Abu Ali Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rustum, the governor, kissed him, took him under his wing, lodged him in Madina (the district), assisted him generously, and allotted him a known stipend from the tax office, which he collected until he died."

He had given his son Muhammad the kunya Abu Dhar, and that was the kunya of his father Ahmad.

Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn Manda said: "I heard our trusted sheikhs say: Abu al-Qasim At-Tabarani dictated the hadith of Ikrima concerning the Vision (of Allah); Ibn Tabatab the Alawi rejected it and threw at him a stone that was before him; when At-Tabarani saw that, he responded to him with a speech that I have abridged, and he said in the midst of his words: Why do you not keep silent and busy yourselves with your own affairs, so that what happened on the Day of al-Harra may no longer be mentioned?"

When Ibn Tabatab heard that, he stood up, apologized to him and regretted it.

Ibn Manda said further: "I was informed that At-Tabarani had a fine presence and pleasant conversation. One day Abu Tahir ibn Luqa read to him the hadith: He used to wash the pebbles of his jamarat, making them fine, and he said: His donkey was castrated. He said: What did he mean by that, Abu Tahir?"

He said: "Humility; and the one who said it was like one pretending ignorance."

At-Tabarani said to him one day: "You are my child." He said:

"And you too, Abu al-Qasim," meaning: and you too.

Ibn Manda said: "I found it from Ahmad ibn Ja'far the jurist, who said: Abu Umar ibn Abd al-Wahhab al-Sulami informed us and said: I heard At-Tabarani say: When Abu Ali ibn Rustum ibn Fars arrived, I entered upon him; some scribes entered upon him, and one poured onto his feet five hundred dirhams; when the scribe left, he gave them to me; then when his daughter Umm Adnan entered, she poured onto his feet five hundred (dirhams); I stood up, and he said: Where to?

I said: I stood up so that he would not say: He sat for this. He said: Take this as well. And at the end of his session, he spoke somewhat against Abu Bakr and Umar (may Allah be pleased with them); I left and never returned to him."

Ahmad ibn Ja'far the jurist said: "I heard Abu Abd Allah ibn Hamdan and Abu al-Hasan al-Madini, among others, say: We heard At-Tabarani say: This book is my soul, meaning the (Mu'jam al-)Awsat."

Abu al-Husayn Ahmad ibn Faris the philologist said: "I heard the master Ibn al-Amid say: I did not think there was in the world a sweetness more delicious than the emirate and the vizierate I hold, until I witnessed the discussion between Abu al-Qasim At-Tabarani and Abu Bakr al-Ji'abi in my presence. At-Tabarani would overcome Abu Bakr by the abundance of his memory, and Abu Bakr would overcome him by his acumen and intelligence, until their voices rose and neither of them could quite overcome the other. Al-Ji'abi said: I have a hadith that exists in the world with none but me. He said: Bring it. He said: Abu Khalifa al-Jumahi narrated to us, Sulayman ibn Ayyub narrated to us, and he cited a hadith. At-Tabarani said: Sulayman ibn Ayyub informed us, and it is from me that Abu Khalifa heard it; so hear it from me, so that your isnad rises above it. Al-Ji'abi was ashamed. Then I wished that the vizierate had never been, and that I were At-Tabarani, and I rejoiced as he rejoiced, or something like that."

We were informed by Abu al-Makaram al-Labban, from Ghanim al-Burji, that he heard Umar ibn Muhammad ibn al-Haytham say: "I heard Abu Ja'far ibn Abi al-Sari say: I met Ibn Uqda in Kufa; one day I asked him to repeat for me what I had missed, and he refused; I pressed him, and he said: From what land are you?"

I said: "From Isfahan."

He said: "People of rancor, who harbor enmity toward the People of the House."

I said: "Do not say that, for among them are jurists, men of virtue, and partisans of Ali."

He said: "Partisans of Mu'awiya?"

I said: "No, by Allah, but partisans of Ali; there is not one of them with whom Ali is not dearer than his own eye and his family." So he repeated for me what I had missed, then he said to me: "Have you heard Sulayman ibn Ahmad al-Lakhmi?"

I said: "No, I do not know him."

He said: "Glory be to Allah! Abu al-Qasim is in your land and you do not hear from him, and you inflict this harm upon me! In Kufa I know of no equal to Abu al-Qasim; I have heard from him, and he heard from me." Then he said: "Have you heard the (Musnad) of Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi?"

I said: "No."

He said: "You have lost the essence, for its source is in Isfahan."

He said: "Do you know Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Hamza?"

I said: "Yes."

He said: "Rarely have I seen his like in memorization."

The hafiz Abu Abd Allah ibn Manda said: "Abu al-Qasim At-Tabarani is one of the famous memorizers. He narrated from Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahim al-Barqi, but his age did not allow him to meet him; Ahmad died in Egypt in the year 266."

I say: "It has already passed that At-Tabarani erred in the name of his sheikh Abd al-Rahim, calling him Ahmad, and he persisted. The hafiz Abu Sa'id ibn Yunus dated the death of Ahmad ibn al-Barqi in this manner in one place, and dated it in another place in the year 270, in the month of Ramadan; in any case he neither met him nor came close; he only erred in the name. He took the Prophetic Sira from him by hearing, from Abd al-Malik ibn Hisham al-Sadusi. Now Ahmad ibn al-Barqi used to narrate from Amr ibn Abi Salama

al-Tinnisi and from the elders whom his brother Abd al-Rahim had not met. Then we found that At-Tabarani does not mention Abd al-Rahim by this name in his (Mu'jam); rather he persisted in the error, calling him "Ahmad" with the letter alif. These two have a third brother, Muhammad ibn al-Barqi the hafiz, who authored a work on the weak narrators; he is the eldest of the three; he died in the year 249. And Abd al-Rahim ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Barqi, whom At-Tabarani met and in naming whom he stumbled with "Ahmad," died in the year 286."

We have heard the Sira through his chain; and the hafiz Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Mansur al-Shirazi was asked about At-Tabarani, and he said: "I wrote from him three hundred thousand hadiths." Then he said: "He is trustworthy, except that he wrote from a sheikh in Egypt, and the two were brothers, and he erred in his name," meaning the two sons of al-Barqi.

Abu Abd Allah al-Hakim said: "I found that the hafiz Abu Ali al-Naysaburi had a bad opinion of Abu al-Qasim al-Lakhmi, and I asked him the reason. He said: We were gathered at the door of Abu Khalifa, and I mentioned to him the chains of the hadith (I have been commanded to prostrate on seven parts); I said to him: Do you retain Shu'ba, from Abd al-Malik ibn Maymuna, from Tawus, from Ibn Abbas?

He said: "Yes; Gundar narrated it, and Ibn Abi Adi."

I said: "From whom, of the two of them?"

He said: "Abd Allah ibn Ahmad narrated it to us, from his father, from the two of them; so I suspected him at that point, for none other than Uthman ibn Umar narrated it from Shu'ba."

I say: "This is obstinacy against a hafiz who is an authority."

The hafiz Diya al-Din al-Maqdisi said: "At-Tabarani erred in this during the discussion; but as for his collecting the hadith of Shu'ba, he did not narrate it except from the hadith of Uthman ibn Umar,

and if everyone who erred in a single hadith were accused, no one would be safe from that."

The hafiz Abu Bakr ibn Mardawayh said: "I entered Baghdad and sought the hadiths of Idris ibn Ja'far al-Attar, from Yazid ibn Harun and Rawh, and found only a few hadiths; yet At-Tabarani narrated much from Idris, from Yazid."

I say: "This proves nothing, for the people of Baghdad narrated abundantly from Idris due to his leniency, and At-Tabarani got hold of him, seizing the elevation of his isnad; he narrated much from him and took care of his affair."

Ahmad al-Batirqani said: "Ibn Mardawayh entered the house of At-Tabarani while I was with him; that was after the death of his son Abu Dhar, on the occasion of the sale of At-Tabarani's books; he saw the early booklets and grieved over that; he insulted At-Tabarani and had a bad opinion of him."

Sulayman ibn Ibrahim the hafiz said: "Ibn Mardawayh had something in his heart against At-Tabarani, and he uttered words; Abu Nu'aym said to him: How much have you written from him, Abu Bakr?

He gestured toward bundles, and he said: "And whom have you seen like him?"

He said nothing.

The hafiz adh-Diya said: "Ibn Mardawayh mentions in his (History) of Isfahan a group and declared them weak, and he mentions At-Tabarani and did not declare him weak; had he considered him weak, he would have declared him so."

Abu Bakr ibn Abi Ali al-Mu'addal said: "At-Tabarani is too famous for his merit and knowledge to be described; he had vast knowledge and many works. It is said that his eyesight went in his last days, and he would say: The heretics have bewitched me. One day Hasan al-Attar, his student, wanting to test his sight, said to him: How many beams are there in the ceiling?

He said: "I do not know, but the engraving of my ring is: Sulayman ibn Ahmad."

I say: "He said that in jest."

He said: "He was asked once: Who is this one coming (meaning his son)?"

He said: "Abu Dhar, though not the Ghifari."

Abu al-Qasim has among his works: the Book of the (Sunna), one volume; the Book of (Supplication), one volume; the Book of (Tawalat), one volume; the Book of the (Musnad of Shu'ba), large; the (Musnad of Sufyan); the Book of the (Musnads of the Syrians); the Book of (Tafsir), very large; the Book of (Awail); the Book of (Archery); the Book of (Pilgrimage Rites); the Book of (Nawadir); the Book of the (Proofs of Prophethood), one volume; the Book of the (Ten Women); and other things we have not been able to trace, among them the (Musnad of Aisha), the (Musnad of Abu Hurayra), the (Musnad of Abu Dhar), the (Knowledge of the Companions), (Knowledge), (The Vision), (The Merit of the Arabs), (Generosity), (Inheritance Laws), (The Merits of Ahmad), the Book of (Beverages), the Book (of Precedence) on the caliphate of Abu Bakr and Umar, and other things; and the hafiz Yahya ibn Manda named them according to the order of the caliphate.

Most of them are musnads of memorizers and notables, and we have not seen them.

The hadith of At-Tabarani has continued to circulate, sought after and coveted, especially in the time of his last transmitter Ibn Rida, for generations heard from him; al-Silafi wrote from about a hundred of them and from the companions of Ibn Fadhshah; Abu Musa al-Madini and Abu al-Ala al-Hamadhani wrote from several of their survivors.

The people crowded around the last of them, Fatima al-Juzdaniyya, who died in the year 524; Ibn Khalil and adh-Diya traveled, as did the sons of the hafiz Abd al-Ghani and several hadith scholars, seeking the hadith of At-Tabarani; they obtained licenses from the survivors of the line of sheikhs, their relatives and their juniors; they carried it to Syria, narrated it and spread it; then Ibn Jawana, al-Harithi, al-Mizzi, Ibn Sama, al-Barzali and their peers heard it by elevated license; they narrated it in this era; and the highest of what remains of it in continuous chain is his (Mu'jam as-)Saghir, so do not miss it, may Allah have mercy on you.

At-Tabarani lived one hundred years and ten months.

The hafiz Abu Nu'aym said: "At-Tabarani died on the two nights remaining of Dhu al-Qa'da of the year

360, in Isfahan; and his son Abu Dhar died in the year 399, at about 66 years of age."

Abd al-Malik ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Attar informed us; Yusuf ibn Khalil informed us; Ali ibn Sa'id ibn Fadhshah and Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd informed us, saying:

Mahmud ibn Isma'il informed us; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Fadhshah informed us; Sulayman ibn Ahmad narrated to us; Abu Muslim al-Kashi narrated to us; Abu Asim narrated to us, from Ibn Ajlan, from his father, from Abu Hurayra, who said: "We were on a journey with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and with him was a man who cursed his she-camel."

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Where is the one who cursed his she-camel?"

He said: "Here she is."

He said: "Keep her away, for you have been answered concerning her."

Ahmad ibn Muhammad the hafiz informed us; Ibn Khalil informed us; Mas'ud ibn Abi Mansur informed us; al-Hasan ibn Ahmad informed us; Abd al-Wahhab ibn Muhammad ibn Mihra informed us in the year 425; Sulayman al-Tabarani informed us; Muhammad ibn Hayyan al-Mazini and Abu Khalifa narrated to us, saying:

Abu al-Walid narrated to us; Shu'ba narrated to us, from Ali ibn Badhima, from Abu Ubayda, from his father Abd Allah, who said: "Whoever recites the Qur'an in less than three (nights) is a rajiz (one who chants rajaz poetry)."

I read before Sulayman ibn Qudama the qadi; Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahid the hafiz informed us; Muhammad ibn Ahmad informed us; Fatima bint Abd Allah informed us; Ibn Rida informed us; At-Tabarani informed us; Ali ibn Abd al-Aziz narrated to us; Sa'id ibn Mansur narrated to us; Hushaym narrated to us; Abd al-Hamid ibn Ja'far narrated to us, from his father, that Khalid ibn al-Walid lost his helmet on the day of Yarmuk; he said: "Look for it." They did not find it. He said: "Look for it." They found it; it was a split helmet. Khalid said:

"The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) performed umra and shaved his head; the people hurried to take strands of his hair, and I beat them to the forelock; I placed it in this helmet; and I never attended a battle while it was with me except that I was granted victory."

Those who died in the year 360: al-Ajurri, who will come; the centenarian Abu Ali Isa ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Jurjani al-Tumari, at ninety-nine years of age; the imam of the main mosque of Hamadhan, Abu al-Abbas al-Fadl ibn al-Fadl al-Kindi; the musnad of Baghdad, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn al-Haytham al-Anbari; al-Bundar; Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn Kinana the teacher; the hadith master and model Abu Amr Muhammad ibn Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn Matr al-Naysaburi; the vizier Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn al-Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn al-Amid, author of the (Turs al-Fa'iq); the centenarian Abu Tahir Muhammad ibn Sulayman ibn Dhakwan al-Ba'labakki the Qur'an reciter; the elder of the ascetics, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Dawud al-Daqqi al-Dinawari; and the one who took Damascus, Abu al-Qasim ibn Abi Ya'la al-Hashimi, who was then taken captive and sent to Egypt.