Abu Ma'shar Najih al-Sindi al-Madani

This article is about the hadith scholar. For the astrologer, see Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi.
Abu Ma'shar Najih al-Sindi
Personal life
Diedc787. AD,
8th century
Abbasid Caliphate
EraIslamic Golden Age
RegionAbbasid Caliphate
OccupationScholar of Islam
Religious life
ReligionIslam

Abu Ma'shar Najih al-Sindi al-Madani (full name: Abū Maʿshar Najīḥ (or Nujayḥ)[1] ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sindī al-Madanī, Arabic: أبو معشر نجيح بن عبد الرحمن السندي المدني), d. 787, was a Muslim historian and hadith scholar.[2] A contemporary of Ibn Ishaq, he wrote the Kitāb al-Maghāzī, fragments of which are preserved in the works of al-Waqidi and Ibn Sa'd.[2] Al-Tabari quoted him for Biblical information and chronological statements about the Islamic prophet Muhammad and later Muslim conquests.[2][3] As a hadith transmitter, Muslim experts in biographical evaluation (ʿIlm al-rijāl) generally considered him unreliable.[4]

Life

Of Sindhi ancestry, Abu Ma'shar was a freed slave from Yemen who lived in Medina.[2] In 160 AH / 776 CE, he left Medina and settled in Baghdad, where he was close to members of the Abbasid court until his death in 170 AH / 787 CE.[2]

References

  1. ^ Blankinship, Khalid Yahya, ed. (1989). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXV: The End of Expansion: The Caliphate of Hishām, A.D. 724–738/A.H. 105–120. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-88706-569-9.
  2. ^ a b c d e Horovitz, J. & Rosenthal, F. (1960). "Abū Maʿshar Nadjīḥ b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sindī". In Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Lévi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume I: A–B. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 140. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_0230. OCLC 495469456.
  3. ^ Hawting, G. R., ed. (1996). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XVII: The First Civil War: From the Battle of Siffīn to the Death of ʿAlī, A.D. 656–661/A.H. 36–40. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. p. xvii. ISBN 978-0-7914-2393-6.
  4. ^ Ahmed, Shahab (2017-04-24). Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam. Harvard University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-674-04742-6.