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Abū al-Ḥusayn ‘Asākir ad-Dīn Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj ibn Muslim ibn Ward al-Qushayrī an-Naysābūrī[note 1] (Arabic: أبو الحسين عساكر الدين مسلم بن الحجاج بن مسلم بن وَرْد القشيري النيسابوري; after 815 – May 875 CE / 206 – 261 AH), commonly known as Imam Muslim, was an Islamic scholar from the city of Nishapur, particularly known as a muhaddith (scholar of hadith). His hadith collection, known as Sahih Muslim, is one of the six major hadith collections in Sunni Islam and is regarded as one of the two most authentic (sahih) collections, alongside Sahih al-Bukhari.
Biography
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj was born in the town of Nishapur[5] in the Abbasid province of Khorasan, in present-day northeastern Iran. Historians differ as to his date of birth, though it is usually given as 202 AH (817/818),[6][7] 204 AH (819/820),[3][8] or 206 AH (821/822).[6][7][9]
Al-Dhahabi said, "It is said that he was born in the year 204 AH," though he also said, "But I think he was born before that."[3]
Ibn Khallikan could find no report of Muslim's date of birth, or age at death, by any of the ḥuffāẓ (hadith masters), except their agreement that he was born after 200 AH (815/816). Ibn Khallikan cites Ibn al-Salah, who cites Ibn al-Bayyiʿ's Kitab ʿUlama al-Amsar, in the claim that Muslim was 55 years old when he died on 25 Rajab, 261 AH (May 875)[9] and therefore his year of birth must have been 206 AH (821/822).
Ibn al-Bayyiʿ reports that he was buried in Nasarabad, a suburb of Nishapur.
According to scholars, he was of Arab origin.[10][11] The nisbah of "al-Qushayri" signifies Muslim's belonging to the Arab tribe of Banu Qushayr, members of which migrated to the newly conquered Persian territory during the expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate. According to two scholars, Ibn al-Athīr and Ibn al-Salāh, he was actually an Arab member of that tribe of which his family had migrated to Persia nearly two centuries earlier following the conquest.[3]
The author's teachers included Harmala ibn Yahya, Sa'id ibn Mansur, Abd-Allah ibn Maslamah al-Qa'nabi, al-Dhuhali, al-Bukhari, Ibn Ma'in, Yahya ibn Yahya al-Nishaburi al-Tamimi, and others. Among his students were al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Abi Hatim al-Razi, and Ibn Khuzaymah, each of whom also wrote works on hadith. After his studies throughout the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Iraq and Syria, he settled in his hometown of Nishapur, where he met, and became a lifelong friend of al-Bukhari.
Sources
A number of sources became prominent loci for learning about the biography of Muslim. The History of Baghdad by Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, produced in the 11th century, formed the basis of all subsequent descriptions of his life in Islamic sources. For example, the complete biography of Muslim in the History of Islam by Al-Dhahabi contains 27 reports, 11 of which (41%) come from Al-Baghdadi's History. The second most important source for information about Muslim's life, now lost, was the History of Nishapur of Al-Hakim al-Nishapuri. The History of Baghdad itself, which contains 14 reports about Muslim, took half of them (7) from the History of Nishapur.[12]
In the mid-9th century, Muslim composed a collection of what he considered entirely sahih hadith, now known as Sahih Muslim. Today, it is considered one of the six canonical books of hadith in Sunni Islam. In particular, it along with Sahih al-Bukhari are considered the two pre-eminent collections in this canon; together they are called the Sahihayn. Figures on the number of hadiths in this book vary from three to twelve thousand, depending on whether duplicates are included, or only the text is. Muslim's collection has a substantial overlap with Sahih al-Bukhari: according to Al-Jawzaqi, 2,326 traditions are shared between the two. The collections also roughly share 2,400 narrators; only 430 of the narrators in Sahih al-Bukhari are not found in Sahih Muslim, and only 620 narrators in Sahih Muslim are not found in Sahih al-Bukhari.[13]
Legacy
The scholar of Ahlus-Sunnah, Ishaq Ibn Rahwayh was first to recommend Muslim's work.[14]
Ishaq's contemporaries did not at first accept this; Abu Zur‘a al-Razi objected that Muslim had omitted too much material which Muslim himself recognised as authentic and that he included transmitters who were weak.[15]
Ibn Abi Hatim (d. 327/938) later accepted Muslim as "trustworthy, one of the hadith masters with knowledge of hadith"; but this contrasts with much more fulsome praise of Abu Zur‘a and also his father Abu Hatim. It is similar with Ibn al-Nadim.[16]
Muslim's book gradually increased in stature such that it is considered among Ahlus-Sunnah the most authentic collections of hadith, second only to Sahih Bukhari.[17]
^The name of his father has sometimes been given as حجاج (Ḥajjāj) instead of الحجاج (al-Ḥajjāj). The name of his great-great-grandfather has variously been given as كوشاذ (Kūshādh[3] or Kawshādh), كرشان[4] (Kirshān, Kurshān, or Karshān), or كوشان (Kūshān or Kawshān).
References
Citations
^Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh (1990). ʻAbd al-Ghafūr ʻAbd al-Ḥaqq Ḥusayn Balūshī (ed.). Musnad Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh (1st ed.). Tawzīʻ Maktabat al-Īmān. pp. 150–165.
^ abcdSalahuddin ʿAli Abdul Mawjood (2007). The Biography of Imam Muslim bin al-Hajjaj. Translated by Abu Bakr Ibn Nasir. Riyadh: Darussalam. ISBN978-9960988191.
^ abK. J. Ahmad (1987). Hundred Great Muslims. Des Plaines, Illinois: Library of Islam. ISBN0933511167.
^Syed Bashir Ali (2003). Scholars of Hadith. The Makers of Islamic Civilization Series. Malaysia: IQRAʼ International Educational Foundation. ISBN1563162040. Archived from the original on 2016-06-17. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
^R.N. Frye, ed. (1975). The Cambridge history of Iran. London: Cambridge University Press. p. 471. ISBN978-0-521-20093-6.
^al-Qushayrī, Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj; Shahryar, Aftab (2004-01-01). صحيح مسلم. Islamic Book Service. ISBN9788172315924. Archived from the original on 2021-09-30. Retrieved 2020-12-15.
