Обсуждение:Абу Давуд

Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī // Encyclopaedia Islamica

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Abū Dāwūd's study of ḥadīth

Beliefs

Jurisprudence

Life and Travels

Lost Works

Published Works

Bibliography

Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī, Sulaymān b. al-Ashʿath b. Isḥāq b. Bashīr b. Shaddād b. ʿAmr b. ʿImrān al-Azdī (202–275/817–888), was a well-known traditionist and compiler of the ḥadīth collection known as Sunan Abī Dāwūd, the third of the six canonical books of ḥadīth (al-Ṣiḥāḥ al-sitta). The title ‘al-Sijistānī’, occasionally ‘al-Sijzī’ (cf. Abū ʿAwāna, 1/191), which usually comes after his kunya, indicates that he came from Sīstān. The author of Tārīkh-i Sīstān (p. 19) refers to him as one of the outstanding scholars of the region, and there is no evidence for the assertion that he was an inhabitant of Sijistān, an unidentified village in the vicinity of Baṣra (see Yāqūt, 3/44).

He was a descendant of the tribe of Azd. The Arabic names in his genealogical tree indicate his Arab origin. It is said that ʿImrān, one of his forebears some five generations back, fought alongside ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib in the battle of Ṣiffīn and was killed there (Ibn Mākūlā, 1/295). The details of his forebears' migration to Sīstān are unknown, but it seems they acquired some landed property there which was inherited by Abū Dāwūd and passed on to his descendants (al-Dhahabī, 13/217).

Abū Dāwūd's study of ḥadīth

Abū Dāwūd studied under some three hundred scholars (Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb, 4/173), and one can find their names in his works, especially in the Sunan. Al-Mizzī (11/356–359) provides an alphabetical list of dozens of his masters and Abū Dāwūd himself also gave a brief list of some of his most important masters in his Masāʾil (p. 266). The masters and traditionists under whom Abū Dāwūd studied belong to two generations, which roughly correspond to his two periods of travel. It should also be noted that Abū Dāwūd did not refrain from recounting ḥadīths he had collected from contemporaries, such as Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 2/95; Ibn Abī Ḥātim, 2(1)/102).

Abū Dāwūd's students and transmitters include the following: his own son Abū Bakr, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, Abū ʿAwāna al-Isfarāyinī, Ibn Khallād al-Rāmhurmuzī, Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, Abū Bishr al-Dūlābī, Ibn Dāwūd al-Iṣfahānī, Muḥammad b. Naṣr al-Marwazī, Abū al-Ḥusayn Ibn al-Munādī and Abū Bakr al-Najjād (al-Mizzī, 11/360–361; Ibn Ḥibbān, Kitāb al-Majrūḥīn, 2/177; Ibn Abī Yaʿlā, 1/160; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb, 4/172). Even Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal learnt a ḥadīth from him concerning ʿatīra (a sacrificial animal) (al-Khaṭīb, 9/57).

In one report concerning Abū Dāwūd's mastery in the science of ḥadīth, Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī and Muḥammad b. Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī likened the pliability of ḥadīth in the hands of Abū Dāwūd to that of iron in the hands of the prophet David (Ibn ʿAsākir, 7/547). Although such writers as Ibn Abī Ḥātim (2(1)/102), Ibn Ḥibbān (al-Thiqāt, 2/282) and Maslama b. al-Qāsim (Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb, 4/173) regarded Abū Dāwūd as one of the most reliable traditionists, Abū Dāwūd's reputation as the author of one of the most important and authoritative collections of ḥadīths does not need this sort of validation. Indeed, he was himself regarded as an authority in the science of rijāl (the knowledge of the character and reliability of transmitters of ḥadīths); and one can find scattered throughout the Sunan (for example, 1/4) his opinions on certain individuals. Abū Dāwūd's responsa to the questions put by Abū ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī (see Suʾālāt below) also bears witness to this aspect of his authority.

In addition to the above, Abū Dāwūd was also an authority on the biographies of ḥadīth transmitters. It is by virtue of this knowledge that he was able to carefully distinguish between ḥadīths whose isnāds were ‘connected’ (muttaṣil), those whose transmitters are known and form a continuous chain, from those with ‘loose’ (mursal) isnāds, that is to say, a chain lacking the mention of one or more of its early transmitters. This skill can be clearly seen at work not only in al-Marāsīl but also in many places throughout the Sunan (e.g. 1/93, 104). He was very discerning in recording both the content and isnād of a ḥadīth, and took great care to note the slightest variation, in either content or isnād, between two or more narrations of the same ḥadīth (for example see Sunan, 1/23, 151). In addition to his examination of ḥadīths in respect of their transmission (ʿilm al-riwāya), he also became engaged in the contextual study of ḥadīths (ʿilm al-dirāya) (cf. Sunan, 1/62, 179) and paid particular attention to the question of abrogation (al-nāsikh wa al-mansūkh) in relation to ḥadīths (Sunan, 3/93, 201, 209, 352).

On page after page of the Sunan, Abū Dāwūd's commentary on different ḥadīths provides historical information, referring to such events as al-Jamājim and al-Ḥarra (3/64) and the decline in revenues from land tax during the reign of ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (3/144); and also geographical information, for instance about the island of Rhodes (3/215), the Castle of al-Yūn (1/10) and the Well of Biḍāʿa (1/18). He also quotes, sometimes without references, the literary remarks of prominent men of letters such as al-Naḍr b. Shumayl and Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim b. Salām, Abū Ḥātim al-Sijistānī and ʿAbbās b. Faraj al-Riyāshī (cf. Sunan, 2/106). It is worth remarking that Abū Dāwūd was also familiar with the science of qirāʾa (Qurʾān reading) and devoted one book of the Sunan (4/31–38) and one chapter of Masāʾil (285–286) to this subject. In the Sunan there are also scattered allusions to qirāʾa and to different codices (maṣāḥif, sing. muṣḥaf) of the Qurʾān (1/119, 304; 2/142; 3/78). These passages are regarded as amongst the oldest extant sources in the discipline of qirāʾa.

Ahmad Pakatchi / Translated by Shahram Khodaverdian

Beliefs

One can infer from his works that Abū Dāwūd was a follower of the aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth school, and a firm adherent of the ahl al-sunna wa al-jamāʿa (see Sunan, 4/206). He devoted special chapters in the Sunan and Masāʾil to doctrines over which the aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth and other schools had major differences, such as the definition of faith (īmān), the question of predestination (qadar), and the createdness of the Qurʾān (khalq al-Qurʾān). By citing relevant ḥadīths, he sought to corroborate the doctrines of his own school, and to refute those of such sects as the Jahmiyya, Murjiʾa and the Qadariyya (Sunan, 4/206, 219, 222, 234–235; Masāʾil, 262 ff.).

In more particular terms, he also addressed various issues related to tawḥīd, such as the vision of God (ruʾyat Allāh), the divine Throne (ʿarsh), and the divine Attributes (ṣifāt); and eschatological questions, such as intercession (shafāʿa), the createdness of Heaven and Hell and punishment in the grave (ʿadhāb al-qabr). His principal concern in these discussions was to oppose the doctrines of the Jahmiyya (Sunan, 4/231–240) and he also explicitly attacks the Khārijiyya (Sunan, 4/241–245). As regards the question of the caliphate, there is one ḥadīth in the Sunan which is to be carefully noted. This ḥadīth indicates that Abū Bakr was appointed by the Prophet as his successor, and is given under the heading Bāb fī istikhlāf Abī Bakr (‘Chapter on the appointment of Abū Bakr as caliph’) (Sunan, 4/215). In addition to this ḥadīth, there are other ḥadīths in the Sunan, which indicate that the first three caliphs were the most excellent of the Companions, the order of their excellence being expressed by the order in which they succeeded one another: Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān (Sunan, 4/206, 208–209, 212). Alongside these ḥadīths, he also quoted the saying from the Prophet's Companion, Safīna, that those who reject the caliphate of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib are ‘Marwānī liars’ (Sunan, 4/211). One saying of Abū Dāwūd quoted by al-Ḥākim al-Nīsābūrī indicates that it is necessary to love the first two caliphs and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, and not reject their status as caliphs; the caliph ʿUthmān is not mentioned (al-Juwaynī, 1/275 quoting al-Ḥākim).

Ahmad Pakatchi / Translated by Shahram Khodaverdian

Jurisprudence

Al-Dhahabī (13/215) considered Abū Dāwūd a great jurist and cited his magnum opus as proof of the fact. Indeed, in his Sunan one can occasionally find points of Abū Dāwūd's own jurisprudence (1/27, 3/90, 109, 168, 352) alongside citations of arguments by well-known tābiʿī jurists such as Qatāda, Mujāhid, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī and al-Zuhrī (3/90, 181, 291, 295 et passim) and later jurists such as al-Awzāʿī and Mālik b. Anas (3/271, 1/82, 190). In the Masāʾil he quotes juridical arguments by Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, al-Shāfiʿī, Sufyān al-Thawrī, al-Ḥumaydī and Ibn al-Mubārak (Masāʾil, 197, 43, 56, 251).

In fact, Abū Dāwūd was more a transmitter of juridical arguments than a theorist in his own right. The two most impor-tant means by which this transmission was accomplished were:

1. Narrating, recording and classifying ḥadīths of juridical import in his Sunan (for the influence of this work on the jurisprudence of the aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth see the following section).
2. Compiling Masāʾil al-Imām Aḥmad, which is a valuable collection of the juridical arguments of Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, and is one of the earliest sources of Ḥanbalī jurisprudence. Ḥanbalī jurists have always considered Abū Dāwūd's narrations from Ibn Ḥanbal as amongst their most authentic sources (Abū Yaʿlā, 182; Ibn Hubayra, 1/85 et passim). As a result of the considerable importance given by Abū Dāwūd to the opinions of Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Muslim historians came to regard him as a Ḥanbalī jurist of the first rank (Ibn Abī Yaʿlā, 1/159 ff.; Ibn al-Jawzī, 40; see also Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī, 172). Given the fact that he was one of the aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth, his orientation to Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal was altogether natural at that time; and, as has been reported, for Abū Dāwūd, friendship with Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal was a sign of being one of the ahl al-sunna (Ibn al-Jawzī, 139). In one report, the genealogical tree of his teachers of fiqh is symbolically traced back, via Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, to the Prophet himself (al-Khaṭīb, 9/58).

During his travels in Syria and the Thughūr al-Shām, Abū Dāwūd studied closely the jurisprudence of al-Awzāʿī whom he believed to be one of the greatest juridical theorists. So strong was his belief in al-Awzāʿī that Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal warned Abū Dāwūd against unquestioning acceptance (taqlīd) of al-Awzāʿī's authority in matters of fiqh (Abū Dāwūd, Masāʾil, 277).

Abū Dāwūd's will contains a clear juridical injunction: he stipulated that al-Ḥasan b. al-Muthannā al-ʿAnbarī (d. 294/907), a Baṣran faqīh, should perform the ritual ablution (ghusl) of his body, or failing this, that it be performed in accordance with the instructions in the book on ghusl written by Sulaymān b. Ḥarb al-Wāshiḥī (d. 224/839), who had clarified the approach of another prominent Baṣran jurist, Ḥammād b. Zayd (Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb, 4/169–173).

Ahmad Pakatchi / Translated by Shahram Khodaverdian

Life and Travels

Very little is known of Abū Dāwūd's early life. According to al-Ḥākim al-Nīsābūrī, his education began in Herat, where he embarked on his study of ḥadīth (Ibn ʿAsākir, 7/546; al-Dhahabī, 13/212–213). In the same account, al-Ḥākim quotes Abū Isḥāq al-Faqīh to the effect that Abū Dāwūd lived in Herat before he went to Iraq (Ibn ʿAsākir, 7/547). These two statements—which give Herat as his second home—are confirmed by Abū Dāwūd himself, since he mentions being in contact with close relatives in Khurāsān who belonged to the Murjiʾa school of thought (Abū Dāwūd, Masāʾil, 276). Furthermore, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Yāsīn al-Harawī, in the Taʾrīkh Harāt, refers to him as a prominent scholar from Herat (al-Subkī, 2/295).

Although Abū Dāwūd studied under the eminent Sīstānī scholar, Yaḥyā b. Faḍl al-Sijistānī, there is no evidence that they ever met in Sīstān (Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/131). According to al-Ḥākim al-Nīsābūrī (Ibn ʿAsākir, 7/546), Abū Dāwūd went to Nīsābūr and studied under the great Khurāsānī traditionist, Isḥāq b. Rāhawayh, and other important scholars such as ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Jarrāḥ al-Quhistānī (see al-Mizzī, 11/356–359; Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 3/171). During this period he studied alongside Ibn Rāhawayh's sons (Yāqūt, 3/44), and as he was in Nīsābūr in 238/852 when Ibn Rāhawayh died, he attended his funeral (al-Khaṭīb, 9/465).

In addition to Herat and Nīsābūr, AbūDāwūd travelled to other cities in Khurā-sān in pursuit of his studies, and benefited from the scholarly environment of the province. In Baghlān of Balkh, he studied ḥadīth under the great traditionist Qutayba b. Saʿīd (al-Dhahabī, 13/213), and other scholars in the region such as Yaḥyā b. Mūsā and Muḥammad b. Abān (see Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/197, 263). The scholars with whom Abū Dāwūd studied include individuals from Marw and Ṭāliqān (in Khurāsān) who were of the same generation as Qutayba b. Saʿīd (al-Mizzī, 11/356–359; Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/269, 3/191). The large number of ḥadīths Abū Dāwūd cites from Ibn Qutayba indicate the importance of his time in Balkh.

A few years prior to 220/835, Abū Dāwūd went to Rayy and acquired ḥadīths there from traditionists such as Ibrāhīm b. Mūsā al-Tamīmī (al-Dhahabī, 13/213), Abū Ḥaṣīn b. Yaḥyā, Muḥammad b. Mihrān al-Bazzāz, Muḥammad b. ʿAmr and Aḥmad b. Abī Surayj (Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/55, 83, 84, 2/37).

In 220/835, Abū Dāwūd moved on toIraq and attended only one formal studycircle in Baghdad, that taught by Abū ʿUmar Ḥafṣ b. ʿUmar al-Ḍarīr (d. 220/835). He also attended the funeral of ʿAffān b. Muslim in Baghdad (al-Khaṭīb, 9/56). Soon afterwards he left Baghdad for Baṣra, arriving there in Rajab 220/835, just after the death of ʿUthmān b. Hushaym al-Muʾadhdhin (al-Khaṭīb, 9/56). According to Abū ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī, who quotes Abū Dāwūd himself, he failed to obtain ḥadīths from a group of the prominent older traditionists of Baṣra; nonetheless he did manage to hear ḥadīths from important traditionists such as Muslim b. Ibrāhīm al-Azdī and ʿĀṣim b. ʿAlī (al-Khaṭīb, 9/55–57). In the short space of approximately one year, he was apparently able to acquire numerous ḥadīths in Baṣra, specifically from ʿAbd Allāh b. Maslama al-Qaʿnabī, Mūsā b. Ismāʿīl al-Tabūdhakī and Musaddad b. Musarhad. Most of the ḥadīths found in his Sunan are in fact derived from these traditionists (see al-Mizzī, 11/358–359). In 221/836, Abū Dāwūd travelled to Kūfa and acquired a few ḥadīths from al-Ḥasan b. Rabīʿ al-Būrānī (al-Mizzī, 11/357, 366), but failed to attend the sessions led by al-Mikhwal b. Ibrāhīm al-Nahdī and ʿUmar b. Ḥafṣ b. Ghiyāth (al-Khaṭīb, 9/56). Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Yūnus al-Yarbūʿī, a Kūfan traditionist from whom Abū Dāwūd obtained many ḥadīths which are quoted in his Sunan, appears to have been one of the key teachers of Abū Dāwūd in this phase of his studies (al-Mizzī, 11/356).

After a short stay in Kūfa, Abū Dāwūd travelled west to continue his studies. In Damascus he attended Abū al-Naḍr al-Farādīsī's study circles in 222/837 (al-Dhahabī, 13/213) and also heard ḥadīths from traditionists there such as Hishām b. ʿAmmār and Ibn Dhakwān al-Qārī (Ibn ʿAsākir, 7/544; Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 3/80). Then he apparently went north to Ḥimṣ, where he managed to collect ḥadīths from traditionists such as Ḥaywa b. Shurayḥ, Yazīd b. ʿAbd Rabbih al-Jirjisī, Muḥammad b. al-Muṣaffā and Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Malik al-Yazanī (al-Mizzī, 11/357, 359; Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/192).

At the beginning of 223/838, the armies of Byzantium began to advance from their eastern frontiers, in Zibaṭra, towards the Islamic lands, and as a result in the month of Jumādā I of the same year, the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Muʿtaṣim went to the Thughūr al-Shām frontier region in Syria in orderto rouse the people there to wage jihād (see al-Ṭabarī, 9/55; al-Yaʿqūbī, 2/475). Whether or not Abū Dāwūd participated in the war is a matter of speculation, but the evidence indicates that around 223/838 he acquired a number of ḥadīths from traditionists in the region, some of whom died in the following year.

In Antioch, Abū Dāwūd studied with Abū Ṣāliḥ Maḥbūb b. Mūsā, Naṣr b. ʿĀṣim, Mūsā b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and Yaʿqūb b. Kaʿb (al-Mizzī, 11/359; see Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/30, 2/87). In al-Maṣṣīṣa he was taught by traditionists such as Ibrāhīm b. Mahdī (d. 224/839) and Muḥammad b.Ḥātim al-Jarjarāʾī, Muḥammad b. Sulaymān Luwayn, Muḥammad b. Ādam (al-Mizzī, 11/356; see Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/8, 95, 4/304). In Adana he collected ḥadīths from scholars such as Isḥāq b. al-Jarrāḥ, ʿAyyāsh b. al-Azraq and Muḥammad b. Īsā b. Nujayḥ al-Baghdādī (d. 224/839) (al-Mizzī, 11/358; see Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/7, 4/42). His teachers in Ṭarsūs included Abū Tawba Rabīʿ b. Nāfiʿ al-Ḥalabī, Ḥāmid b. Yaḥyā al-Balkhī and Ismāʿīl b. Masʿada al-Tanūkhī (al-Mizzī, 11/357; Abū Dāwūd, al-Marāsīl, 76). His numerous masters in the Thughūr al-Shām, and the frequent references in the Sunan to traditionists there such as Ibn Nujayḥ and Abū Tawba, indicate that this was a very profitable period in Abū Dāwūd's travels.

Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ al-Hāshimī quotes Abū Dāwūd to the effect that he settled in Ṭarsūs for twenty years and that it was during this time that he compiled the Sunan (al-Nawawī, 1(2)/226), but this report is contradicted by the evidence of the course of his life and his continuous travelling. Be that as it may, his time in the unstable region of Thughūr al-Shām had a profound impact on Abū Dāwūd. Years later, in his discussions with Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, he would talk about the harsh conditions of life in that region, and specifically in Ṭarsūs which was its strategic and political centre (Abū Dāwūd, Masāʾil, 27, 47, 157, 236–277, 257). It seems that during his time in the Thughūr al-Shām, Abū Dāwūd's legal opinions (fatāwā) were regarded as more or less authoritative (Abū Dāwūd, Masāʾil, 156).

It seems that when he left the Thughūr al-Shām, Abū Dāwūd set out from Antioch taking the coastal road to Gaza. At that time, the lands of the eastern Mediterranean witnessed major political changes. In al-Masāʾil (p. 227), Abū Dāwūd refers to a maritime assault on Antioch by the Byzantine navy which took place in ‘the year of the ʿAmmūriyya’, that is, the year in which Amorion, in Anatolia, was captured (223/838). The historical sources also mention an uprising in Palestine in 227/842 (al-Ṭabarī, 9/116–118). Yet in the midst of these socio-political upheavals, Abū Dāwūd continued to travel to various coastal towns in the region in pursuit of knowledge and ḥadīths. He informs us himself that it was on the way from Antioch to Gaza (see Ibn Khurradādhbih, 89), having left Lādhiqiyya, that he managed to acquire ḥadīths from a certain Yazīd b. Qubays, who was in the town of Jabala (Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 3/41). Then, moving on from Tripoli, he apparently stayed briefly in Beirut collecting ḥadīths from traditionists such as ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. Bakkār, ʿAbbās b. al-Walīd b. Mazyad and Muḥammad b. Khalaf b. Ṭāriq (Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/105, 3/306; Ibn Ḥajar, Taqrīb, 332). It is likely that he acquired ḥadīths from Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ṣūrī and al-Qāsim b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb in Ṣūr (Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 4/77; Ibn Ḥajar, Taqrīb, 450) before going on to Ramla. Abū Dāwūd's masters in Ramla included the prominent traditionist Yazīd b. Khālid b. Mawhab, who is accorded particular importance in the isnads (chains of transmission) recorded in the Sunan (see al-Mizzī, 11/359; Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/7, 49, 89, 151, 4/29).

At the end of this journey, Abū Dāwūd probably went to ʿAsqalān and acquired afew ḥadīths from Muḥammad b. al-Mutawakkil (Sunan, 1/225). In Gaza he attended the sessions of prominent scholars such as ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr and Muḥammad b. ʿAmr b. Ḥajjāj and heard ḥadīths from them (Sunan, 3/38; Ibn Ḥajar, Taqrīb, 499). Either on this journey or on a subsequent one to the capital of Egypt, Abū Dāwūd also obtained ḥadīths from traditionists such as Aḥmad b. Ṣāliḥ, Abū Ṭāhir b. Sarḥ, ʿĪsā b. Ḥammād, Rabīʿ b. Sulaymān al-Murādī—the student of al-Shāfiʿī—and al-Ḥārith b. Miskīn (see al-Mizzī, 11/356–357; Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/72, 4/17). It can also be assumed that he attended the sessions of certain well-known traditionists such as Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Maymūn and Jaʿfar b. al-Musāfir in other Egyptian cities such as Alexandria and Tinnīs (al-Mizzī, 11/357; Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 4/64).

At this point in his travels he went to the Ḥijāz but was able to acquire only a few ḥadīths from the traditionists resident near Mecca and Medina, although he managed to collect many—which are found in his Sunan—from al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī al-Khallāl who was living in Mecca. His time spent studying under Saʿīd b. Manṣūr al-Khurāsānī, then residing in Mecca, marks the end of this stay in the Ḥijāz (al-Mizzī, 11/357). In the 220s/835–844 Abū Dāwūd travelled to the region of the Jazīra, and specifically to al-Raqqa and Ḥarrān where he studied under well-known scholars of the region such as ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad al-Nufaylī, from Ḥarrān, who figures in a considerable number of the isnāds cited by Abū Dāwūd in the Sunan. He also met Muʾammal b. al-Faḍl and Aḥmad b. Abī Shuʿayb from Ḥarrān and ʿAmr b. Muḥammad al-Nāqid and Ayyūb b. Muḥammad al-Wazzān from al-Raqqa (see al-Mizzī, 11/356–359; Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/8).

Finally Abū Dāwūd returned to Iraq with this wealth of knowledge and on this occasion was better able to take advantage of the scholarly environment of Iraq than he had been on previous visits. His arrival in Baghdad coincided with the death of the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim (227/842) and the succession of al-Wāthiq. Although the young caliph, like his predecessors, al-Maʾmūn and al-Muʿtaṣim, opposed the doctrines of the aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth, Abū Dāwūd was able to learn a great deal from Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal (q.v.) and the other authoritative figures of the aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth in Baghdad. In 228/843, Abū Dāwūd accompanied Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal in the funeral procession of one of his masters, Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar al-Warkānī (see Abū Dāwūd, Masāʾil, 151; cf. al-Khaṭīb, 2/118).

In Baghdad Abū Dāwūd spent more time with Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal than with any other traditionist. Not only did Abū Dāwūd learn many ḥadīths from him, which were cited in the Sunan, he also attended many of Ibn Ḥanbal's teaching sessions on jurisprudence and other disciplines. Notes on these sessions were included in Masāʾil, and occasionally in the Sunan. There are many indications in the Masāʾil (156, 227) that these debates belong to this period of his life. During this period, whenever Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal was persecuted by the caliphal authorities on account of his beliefs, he went into hiding. Abū Dāwūd referred to an exchange of letters he had with Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal when the latter was in hiding (Abū Dāwūd, Masāʾil, 265).

Abū Dāwūd also acquired ḥadīths in this period from Iraqi scholars such as Yaḥyā b. Maʿīn, Aḥmad b. Manīʿ, ʿAlī b. al-Jaʿd, Abū Thawr Ibrāhīm b. Khālid and Abū Khaythama Zuhayr b. Ḥarb, in Baghdad; Muḥammad b. Bashshār Bundār, Naṣr b. ʿAlī al-Jahḍamī and Abū al-Wālīd al-Ṭayālisī in Baṣra; Abū Bakr b. Abī Shayba, ʿUthmān b. Abī Shayba, Abū Kurayb Muḥammad b. al-ʿAlāʾ and Hannād b. al-Sarī, in Kūfa; and Tamīm b. al-Muntaṣir and ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. Bayān al-Sukkarī in Wāsiṭ. Abū Dāwūd refers repeatedly to ḥadīths related by some of these scholars in the Sunan (see al-Mizzī, 11/356–359; Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/4, 5, 4/363).

Abū Dāwūd left Iraq towards the end of the 220s (835–845). It is likely that he returned to his native province in order to marry. Be that as it may, the sources indicate that his son, Abū Bakr, was born in 230/845, in Sīstān (al-Khaṭīb, 9/464–465). The 230s (844–854) were quiet years for Abū Dāwūd, and in 241/855 he took his son to attend his first formal session of ḥadīth instruction in Ṭūs (al-Khaṭīb, 9/465). Then Abū Dāwūd began a new phase of travelling with the aim of seeking knowledge, and more importantly, training his son (al-Khaṭīb, 9/464). It is likely that his acquisition of ḥadīths from such later traditionists of Khurāsān as Muḥammad b. Rāfiʿ al-Nīsābūrī and Ḥumayd b. Zanjawayh al-Nasāʾī belongs to this period of his life (Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/42, 2/53). It is possible that it was at this point that he made a brief visit to Samarqand and learned ḥadīths from scholars such as Rajāʾ b. Murajjā and ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dārimī (Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/123, 2/111).

During his travels to the central regions of Iran, Abū Dāwūd, went to Iṣfahān and collected a number of ḥadīths from Abū Masʿūd al-Rāzī (Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 1/163; Abū Nuʿaym, 1/334). Abū Dāwūd also travelled at this time to different cities in Iran, Iraq, al-Shām, the Thughūr al-Shām, the Ḥijāz and Egypt (al-Khaṭīb, 9/464). Given the fact that his son acquired ḥadīths from traditionists in Egypt who died in 248/862—such as ʿĪsā b. Ḥammād and Muḥammad b. Salama (al-Khaṭīb, 9/465)—one can posit this year as the final term of their journey. Very little is known of the next two decades of Abū Dāwūd's life. But it has been established that once he and his son Abū Bakr stopped travelling, they returned to their homeland. After a short while, Abū Dāwūd left Persia to settle permanently in Iraq (al-Dhahabī, 13/218).

He chose to live in Baṣra which was the principal abode in Iraq of the Azd tribe and where he had lived previously. From time to time he also went to Baghdad for brief sojourns (al-Dhahabī, 13/218; al-Khaṭīb, 9/56, 58). It is not clear what happened to Abū Dāwūd when the Zanj revolt broke out in 257/871 in Baṣra, but we know that after that date he was living in Baghdad. After the death of the Zanjī leader in 271/884, Abū Dāwūd was invited back to Baṣra by the ʿAbbāsid crown prince al-Muwaffaq who wished to restore the city's reputation for scholarly excellence. Abū Dāwūd lived there until his death (al-Khaṭṭābī, 1/7–8; al-Dhahabī, 13/209). When Abū Dāwūd died, ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Hāshimī recited the funeral prayers (al-Khaṭīb, 9/59).

Ahmad Pakatchi / Translated by Shahram Khodaverdian

Lost Works

1. Aʿlām al-nubuwwa;
2. al-Tafarrud or Mā tafarrad bihi ahl al-amṣār min al-sunan al-wārida (Ibn Khayr, 109, 110);
3. al-Radd ʿalā ahl al-qadar (al-Mizzī, 11/361; Ibn Ḥajar, al-Iṣāba, 3/53);
4. Musnad Mālik (Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb, 4/170);
5. Nāsikh al-Qurʾān wa mansūkhuhu (Ibn Khayr, 47).

Ahmad Pakatchi/ Translated by Shahram Khodaverdian

Published Works

1. Sunan: According to one account, Abū Dāwūd compiled the Sunan during the lifetime of Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal who gave it his approval (al-Khaṭīb, 9/56); but this account does not accord with what is given in the sources of the Sunan which indicate that it was compiled during the last two decades of Abū Dāwūd's life. According to al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (9/56), Abū Dāwūd completed the work in Baghdad—possibly during his last stay there (i.e. before 271/884). Al-Ḥākim al-Nīsābūrī, quoting Muḥammad b. Mukhallad, says that as soon as it became available, the Sunan won a considerable reputation amongst traditionists and was regarded as a highly reliable source of ḥadīths, so much so that Ibn Mukhallad, indulging somewhat in hyperbole, claimed that among the aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth, the contents of Abū Dāwūd's Sunan were accorded the same level of authenticity as the Qurʾān itself (al-Mizzī, 11/365). Zakariyyāʾ al-Sājī is reported as saying that the Qurʾān is aṣl al-Islām (the root/principle of Islam) and Sunan Abī Dāwūd is ʿahd al-Islām (the covenant/pledge of Islam) (al-Dhahabī, 13/215).

For about a century, the Sunan was regarded as a most authentic and reliable source by jurists of all the major Sunni schools, from Iraq to Morocco (see al-Khaṭṭābī, 1/6). However, according to al-Khaṭṭābī, in the 4th/10th century the well-established authority of al-Ṣaḥīḥayn, the two authoritative books of ḥadīth by al-Bukhārī and Muslim, overshadowed the reputation of the Sunan (al-Khaṭṭābī, 1/6). Nevertheless there is a great deal of evidence to show that, even during 4th and 5th/10th and 11th centuries, the Sunan was known as a major source for the study of ḥadīth in Khurāsān and other parts of Iran (for example see al-Bayhaqī, 2/151; al-Ṣarīfīnī, 84, 122 et passim; al-Samʿānī, 13/409; Ibn Nuqṭa, 1/104, 163 et passim). Abū Dāwūd's Sunan was transmitted by a number of his students, of which four versions gained particular currency, those of: Muḥammad b. Bakr b. al-Dāsa (narrated ca. 340–341/951–952), Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. ʿAmr al-Luʾluʾī, both from Baṣra, Abū Saʿīd Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. al-Aʿrābī from Mecca (after 309–313/921–925) and Abū ʿĪsā Isḥāq b. Mūsā al-Ramlī from Baghdad (in 317/929) (for dates see Ibn Khayr, 103–106; for other transmitters see al-Mizzī, 11/360–361; al-Subkī, 2/294). In some extant versions of Sunan, one can also find some of the transmitters' annotations especially those of al-Dāsa and al-Luʾluʾī (see Sunan, 1/90, 287, 2/55, 3/269).

Some narrations in the Sunan—especially the less well-known ones—have been accorded particular attention by the Shiʿa: the narration of al-Luʾluʾī quoted in Ibn Shahrāshūb's Manāqib (1/8 et passim) and also in al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī's ‘al-Ijāza al-kabīra’ (pp. 92–93), the narration of ʿUmar b. Ḥafṣ in al-Khiṣāl by Ibn Bābawayh (1/121) and the narration of ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAbd in al-Ṭūsī's al-Khilāf (2/143) and also in Abū Ṭālib al-Hārūnī's Amālī (p. 440).

From the 5th/11th century onwards, as the corpus of al-Ṣiḥāḥ al-sitta had acquired canonical status, the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd came to be regarded by Sunni Muslims as the third most authoritative source of ḥadīths, after al-Ṣaḥīḥayn, the ‘two sound ones’ that is the collections of al-Bukhārī and Muslim. Even in the other established sets of ḥadīth collections such as al-Ṣiḥāḥ al-khamsa or the Maghribī al-Ṣiḥāḥ al-sitta, the Sunan retained its authoritative reputation and status (see Ibn al-Qaysarānī, 13 et passim; al-Ḥāzimī, 32 et passim; Ibn al-Athīr, 1/19). For a thousand years, the Sunan has been regarded as one the most authoritative sources of ḥadīths, and as such has spread far and wide in the Muslim world, in various forms, abridgements and summaries.

2. Risāla fī waṣf taʾlīf li kitāb al-Sunan: In this work, Abū Dāwūd describes his method of compiling the Sunan. It was edited by Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī and published in Cairo in 1369/1950.

3. al-Ruwāt min al-ikhwa wa al-akhawāt: This work on rijāl was edited by Bāsim Fayṣal al-Jawābira and published in Riyadh, in 1408/1988.

4. al-Marāsīl: A study of how and why a given ḥadīth may be described as mursal. The text has been published on a number of occasions.

5. Masāʾil al-Imām Aḥmad: This treatise comprises Abū Dāwūd's questions to Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, and the latter's responsa on various matters of jurisprudence, doctrine, ḥadīth, ʿilm al-rijāl, etc. The text has been published on a number of occasions.

6. Suʾālāt Abī ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī li-Abī Dāwūd: This work comprises questions on ʿilm al-rijāl put by Abū ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī to Abū Dāwūd, together with the latter's responsa; it is regarded as an important source among rijāl scholars (al-Mizzī, 11/361; Sezgin, 1/165).

Manuscripts: Kitāb al-zuhd, narrated by IbnKhayr al-Ishbīlī (Fahrasa, 109, 274) via an unbroken chain of transmitters. The manuscript is held in the Library of the Qarawiyyīn of Fez (Fihris makhṭūṭāt, 3/117–118).

Ahmad Pakatchi / Translated by Shahram Khodaverdian

Bibliography

Abū ʿAwāna al-Isfarāyinī, Yaʿqūb, al-Musnad (Hyderabad, 1362/1943)

Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī, Sulaymān, Sunan, ed. Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd (Cairo, n.d.)

idem, al-Marāsīl, ed. Kamāl Yūsuf al-Ḥūt (Beirut, 1408/1988)

idem, Masāʾil al-Imām Aḥmad (Cairo, 1353/1934)

Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī, Ibrāhīm, Ṭabaqāt al-fuqahāʾ, ed. Khalīl al-Mays (Beirut, n.d.)

Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh, Dhikr akhbār Iṣbahān, ed. S. Dedering (Leiden, 1931)

Abū Ṭālib al-Hārūnī, Yaḥyā, Taysīr al-maṭālib fī amālī al-Imām Abī Ṭālib, ed. Yaḥyā ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Fuḍayl (Beirut, 1395/1975)

Abū Yaʿlā, Muḥammad, al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyya, ed. Muḥammad Ḥāmid al-Fiqī (Cairo, 1357/1938)

al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī, al-Ḥasan b. Yūsuf, ‘al-Ijāza al-kabīra’, in al-Majlisī's Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 104 (Beirut, 1403/1983)

Tārīkh-i Sīstān, ed. Muḥammad Taqī Bahār (Tehran, 1314 Sh./1935)

al-Bayhaqī, Aḥmad, al-Sunan al-kubrā (Hyderabad, 1344/1926)

al-Dhahabī, Muḥammad, Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ et al. (Beirut, 1404/1984)

Fihris makhṭūṭāt khizānat al-Qarawiyyīn, ed. Muḥammad ʿĀbid al-Fāsī (Casablanca, 1403/1983)

al-Ḥāzimī, Muḥammad, Shurūṭ al-aʾimma al-khamsa (supplement to Shurūṭ al-aʾimma al-sitta, see Ibn al-Qaysarānī below)

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, al-Jarḥ wa al-taʿdīl (Hyderabad, 1372/1952)

Ibn Abī Yaʿlā, Muḥammad, Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābila, ed. Muḥammad Ḥāmid al-Fiqī (Cairo, 1371/1952)

Ibn ʿAsākir, ʿAlī, Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq (Amman, n.d.)

Ibn al-Athīr, al-Mubārak, Jāmiʿ al-uṣūl, ed. Muḥammad Ḥāmid al-Fiqī (Cairo, 1370/1950)

Ibn Bābawayh, Muḥammad, al-Khiṣāl, ed. ʿAlī Akbār Ghaffārī (Qumm, 1403/1983)

Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Aḥmad, al-Iṣāba (Cairo, 1328/1910)

idem, Tahdhīb al-tahdhīb (Hyderabad, 1325/1907)

idem, Taqrīb al-tahdhīb, ed. Muḥammad ʿAwwāma (Beirut, 1408/1988)

Ibn Ḥibbān, Muḥammad, al-Thiqāt (Hyderabad, 1402/1982)

idem, Kitāb al-majrūḥīn, ed. Maḥmūd Ibrāhīm Zāyid (Beirut, 1396/1976)

Ibn Hubayra, Yaḥyā, al-Ifṣāḥ (Aleppo, 1366/1947)

Ibn al-Jawzī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Manāqib al-Imām Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal (Cairo, 1349/1930)

Ibn Khayr al-Ishbīlī, Muḥammad, Fahrasa, ed. Francisco Codera y Zaidín and Julián Ribera y Tarragó (repr. Baghdad, 1382/1963) [being a revision of Index Librorum de Diversis Scientiarum Ordinibus quos a Magistris didicit Abu Bequer Ben Khair]

Ibn Khurradādhbih, ʿUbayd b. ʿAbd Allāh, al-Masālik wa al-mamālik (Beirut, 1408/1988)

Ibn Mākūlā, ʿAlī, al-Ikmāl (Hyderabad, 1962)

Ibn Nuqṭa, Muḥammad, al-Taqyīd (Hyderabad, 1404/1984)

Ibn al-Qaysarānī, Muḥammad, Shurūṭ al-aʾimma al-sitta, ed. Ṭāriq Saʿūd (Beirut, 1408/1988)

Ibn Shahrāshūb, Muḥammad, Manāqib Āl Abī Ṭālib (Qumm, n.d.)

al-Juwaynī, Ibrāhīm, Farāʾid al-simṭayn, ed. Muḥammad Bāqir al-Maḥmūdī (Beirut, 1398/1978)

al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Aḥmad, Taʾrīkh Baghdād (Cairo, 1349/1930)

al-Khaṭṭābī, Ḥamad b. Muḥammad, Maʿālim al-sunan (Aleppo, 1352/1933)

Lucas, Scott C., Constructive Critics, Ḥadīth Literature, and the Articulation of Sunnī Islam (Leiden, 2004)

al-Mizzī, Yūsuf, Tahdhīb al-kamāl (Beirut, 1408/1987)

al-Nawawī, Yaḥyā, Tahdhīb al-asmāʾ wa al-lughāt (Cairo, n.d.)

al-Samʿānī, ʿAbd al-Karīm, al-Ansāb (Hyderabad, 1396/1976)

al-Ṣarīfīnī, Ibrāhīm, Taʾrīkh Nīsābūr (an abridged version of ʿAbd al-Ghāfir al-Fārisī's al-Siyāq), ed. Muḥammad Kāẓim Maḥmūdī (Qumm, 1362 Sh./1983)

Sezgin, GAS

al-Subkī, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya al-kubrā, ed. Maḥmūd Muḥammad al-Ṭanāḥī and ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ al-Ḥulw (Cairo, 1383/1964)

al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh

al-Ṭūsī, Muḥammad, al-Khilāf (Tehran, 1377/1958)

Yāqūt, Buldān

al-Yaʿqūbī, Aḥmad, Taʾrīkh (Beirut, 1379/1960).

Abū Dawūd // Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936)

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Sulaimān b. al-As̲h̲ʿat̲h̲ al-Azdī al-Sid̲j̲istānī, traditionist, born in 202 (817). In his youth he undertook long journeys in search of the ḥadīt̲h̲. He studied at Bagdad under the Imām Aḥmed b. Ḥanbal; eventually he settled definitely at Baṣra, where he died in 275 (888).

Abū Dāwūd’s principal work is a collection of traditions, known under the generic title of Kitāb al-sunan. Like all other books of this name, Abū Dāwūd’s work is distinguished from the collections of traditions known as Ḏj̲āmiʿ in that it does not concern itself with historical, ethical or dogmatical enquiries. As a principle it contains nothing but traditions relating to the aḥkām, things ordained, or allowed, or forbidden by law; its contents are almost exclusively juridical. Other peculiarities distinguish Abū Dāwūd’s Kitāb al-sunan from earlier collections of traditions, the two Ṣaḥīḥs for example: it has, to begin with, less severity in its criticism of testimony; every rāwī is thought by Abū Dāwūd to be worthy of belief in his information, whenever no formal proof has been given of his reproachableness. Besides very often Abū Dāwūd makes the text of the ḥadīt̲h̲. transmitted by him to be followed by his personal appreciations as to the value which he considers should be allowed to them. These short notices may be considered as the first examples of that criticism of the ḥadīt̲h̲. which in later times was bound to develop into autocephalous discipline. Abū Dāwūd himself recommended his Sunan to the scholars of the two holy cities in a Risāla, ¶ in which he set forth his views, pointed out the usefulness of his work and showed the system of his criticism. The work at once met with great success, and still in the fourth century enthusiastic admirers styled it "The wonder of the world" and "The prop of Islām"; but subsequently, although it was definitely considered as one of the „six bases" which composed the canonical ,,corpus traditionum" of Islām, the Kitāb al-sunan did not possess nearly as much authority and veneration as was acquired by the Ṣaḥīḥ of Buk̲h̲ārī and the Ṣaḥϊḥ of Muslim. The work was published at different times in the East (Cairo, 1280; 1310 on the margin of Zarḳānī’s commentary to the Mu- waṭṭaʾof Mālik; Lucknow, 1888; Delhī, 1890 with glosses). A small collection of mursal traditions is also due to Abū Dāwūd; the Kitāi al-marāsil was also published (Cairo, 1310).

Bibliography

Ibn Ḵh̲allikān (ed.Wüstenf.), No. 271

al-Ḏh̲ahabī, Ṭabaḳāt al-ḥuffāẓ (ed. Wüstenf.), ix. No. 66

idem, Tahd̲h̲īb al-asmāʾ, pp. 708-712

Brockelmann, Gesch. d. arab. Litter., i. 161

Goldziher, Muhamm. Stud., ii. 250-251, 255-256

Marçais, Taqrib d’en-Nawawi, pp. 24—26.

Abū Dāʾūd al-Sid̲j̲istānī // Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition

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Abū Dāʾūd Sulaymān b. al-As̲h̲ʿat̲h̲ al-Sid̲j̲istānī — a traditionist; born in 202/817. He travelled widely in pursuit of his studies and gained a high reputation for his knowledge and piety. Eventually he settled at Baṣra, which is no doubt why some wrongly held that the nisba Sid̲j̲istānī comes from a village near Baṣra called Sid̲j̲istān (or Sid̲j̲istāna), and not from the province of that name. He died in S̲h̲awwāl 275/Febr. 889.

Abū Dāʾūd’s principal work is his Kitāb al-Sunan , which is one of the six canonical books of Tradition accepted by Sunnīs. He is said to have submitted it to Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal who gave it his approval. Ibn Dāsa says Abū Dāʾūd declared that he collected this work of 4800 traditions from a mass of 500,000, and that it contains sound traditions, those which seem to be so, and those which are nearly so. He also said, "I have made clear the traditions in this book of mine which contain great weakness, and those about which I have said nothing are good ( ṣāliḥ ), some being sounder than others". This refers ¶ to the notes which he often adds to his traditions to express his opinion on the value to be attributed to them. Muslim has an introduction to his Ṣaḥīḥ in which he discusses some general questions of criticism; but Abū Dāʾūd is the first to give such detailed notes, paving the way for the more systematic criticism of individual traditions given by his pupil al-Tirmid̲h̲ī in his collection. Abū Dāʾūd quotes men not found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs , his principle being that transmitters are counted trustworthy provided there is no formal proof to discount them. His work which has the generic title of Sunan , dealing mainly with matters ordained, or allowed, or forbidden by law, received high praise. For example, Abū Saʿīd b. al-Aʿrābī said that anyone who knew nothing but the Ḳurʾān and this book would have sufficient knowledge; and Muḥammad b. Mak̲h̲lad said that the traditionists accepted it without question just as they accepted the Ḳurʾān. But one is surprised to find that, although many men in the fourth century praised it highly, no mention of it is made in the Fihrist . Indeed, Abū Dāʾūd is merely mentioned there as the father of his son. People of later times have expressed some criticisms. Al-Mund̲h̲irī, for example, who produced a summary of it, called al-Mud̲j̲tabā , criticized some of the traditions not supplied with notes, and Ibn al-Ḏj̲awziyya added further criticisms. But while faults have been found with the work, it still holds an honoured place. The Sunan was transmitted through several lines, some versions being said to contain material not found in others. Al-Luʾluʾī’s version is the one which has gained most favour. A number of editions of the Sunan have been printed in the East (see Brockelmann). A small collection of mursal traditions by Abū Dāʾūd, entitled Kitāb al-Marāsīl , was published in Cairo in 1310/1892.

Bibliography

Brockelmann, I, 168 f., S I, 266 f.

Ibn Ḵh̲allikān, no. 271

Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīt̲h̲, Aleppo, 1350/1931, 38-41

Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar, Tahd̲h̲īb al-Tahd̲h̲īb, iv, 169-73

Nawawī, Tahd̲h̲īb al-Asmāʾ (Wüstenfeld), 708-12

Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Ḵh̲alīfa, no. 7263

Goldziher, Muh. Stud., ii, 250 f., 255 f.

W. Marçais, in JA, 1900, 330, 502 f.

J. Robson, in MW, 1951, 167 f.

idem, in BSOS, 1952, 579 ff.

Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī // Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE

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Abū Dāwūd Sulaymān b. al-Ashʿath b. Isḥāq b. Bashīr b. Shaddād b. ʿAmr b. ʿImrān (or ʿĀmir) al-Azdī al-Sijistānī (202–75/817 or 818–89) is known mainly as a collector of Prophetic ḥadīth, his Sunan early winning third place among the Six Books most highly regarded by Sunnī Muslims.

Born to a wealthy family in the region of Sijistān, south of Khurāsān, he went to Baghdad in quest of ḥadīth in 220/835. Over the next fifteen years, he also travelled to Basra, Mecca, Kufa, Syria, the Jazīra, and the Byzantine frontier. He spent the years 235–42/850–6, approximately, collecting ḥadīth in Khurāsān and arranging his affairs in Sijistān. During the rest of the 240s, he collected ḥadīth in Egypt as well as most of the cities he had visited from 220/835 to 235/850. He spent most of the period from 250/864 to 260/874 in Tarsus, ordering his ḥadīth and building up his Sunan from the 500,000 he estimated he had collected altogether.

Having finally crushed the Zanj revolt in 270/883, al-Muwaffaq, the effective ruler behind the nominal caliph al-Muʿtamid, commissioned Abū Dāwūd to transfer to Basra. Abū Dāwūd is said to have left Baghdad for the last time at the beginning of 271/June–July 884. He died in Basra, on 15 or 16 Shawwāl 275/20 or 21 February 889.

Numbers 1–9 in the following list of his works have now been published. The rest are not known to be extant.

(1) al-Sunan. A collection of sound ḥadīth.

(2) Risāla ilā ahl Makka. An introduction to al-Sunan.

(3) al-Marāsīl. A collection of 544 ḥadīth reports related by a Successor directly from the Prophet, without any named Companion in between. The Risāla ilā ahl Makka implies that this is an integral part of the Sunan.

(4) al-Zuhd. A collection of ḥadīth on renunciation of the world. Ibn Khayr al-Ishbīlī distinguishes between a recension comprising ḥadīth from the Prophet and another comprising ḥadīth from Companions and Successors (Ishbīlī, Fahrasa, with notes by Muḥammad Fuʾād Manṣūr (Bei-rut, 1419/1998), 92, nos. 156–7). About 80 percent of the extant text is from Companions.

(5) Masāʾil al-imām Aḥmad. Juridical opinions from Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal.

(6) Suʾālāt li-Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal. Opinions on traditionists from Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal.

(7) Suʾālāt Abī ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī. Data on traditionists, mostly from Abū Dāwūd, as collected by Abū ʿUbayd Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Ājurrī (d. early fourth/tenth century?).

(8) Tasmiyat al-ikhwa alladhīna ruwiya ʿan-hum al-ḥadīth. On brother traditionists.

(9) Nāsikh al-Qurʾān wa-mansūkhuh. On abrogation within the Qurʾān.

(10) al-Tafarrud. On ḥadīth found among the traditionists of only one city.

(11) Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa. Presumably a collection of ḥadīth showing that Muḥam-mad was a genuine prophet, probably also comparing him with earlier prophets.

(12) al-Radd ʿalā ahl al-qadar. Presumably a collection of predestinarian ḥadīth.

(13) al-Duʿāʾ. Presumably a collection of prayers.

(14) Faḍāʾil al-anṣār. Presumably a collection of ḥadīth extolling the people of Medina who adhered to the Prophet's cause when he immigrated there from Mecca.

(15) Musnad Mālik. Presumably a collection of ḥadīth transmitted by Mālik b. Anas (d. Medina, 179/795).

(16) Ibtidāʾ al-waḥy. Presumably a collection of ḥadīth on the Prophet's earliest moments of inspiration.

(17) Akhbār al-khawārij. Most likely a history of the movement, but also possibly a collection of ḥadīth from the Khawārij, for Abū Dāwūd is quoted as saying that no heretics had sounder ḥadīth than they.

(18) Aṣḥāb al-Shaʿbī. On traditionists who related ḥadīth from the famous Kufan ʿĀmir b. Sharāḥīl (d. after 100/718–19).

(19) Maʿrifat al-awqāt. Presumably a collection of ḥadīth on the times of the required ritual prayers, possibly an extract of (1).

(20) Kitāb al-kunā. Presumably a list of past traditionists by kunya.

Since al-Sunan seldom repeats ḥadīth under multiple headings, it has somewhat more ḥadīth (by the standard numbering, 5,274) than the rest of the Six Books. Abū Dāwūd's Risāla states that his Sunan includes only aḥkām (ordinances) and all the sound Prophetic ḥadīth available, at least concerning aḥkām. Actually, a little more than a tenth of it goes back to Companions and Successors rather than the Prophet, and some of its ḥadīth reports have been impugned. These presumably cover cases where Abū Dāwūd could find nothing better from the Prophet himself. In line with Ḥanbalī opinion, he would have preferred to rely on a weak ḥadīth report rather than on qiyās.

Al-Mizzī (d. 742/1341) had available eight distinct recensions of al-Sunan. The text available today appears to be a composite. Its individual items were first numbered by Muḥammad Muḥyī l-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd in an Egyptian edition of 1354. Abū Dāwūd offers an express comment on about one-fifth of the items in al-Sunan. Most often, he provides one or more alternative versions of the ḥadīth report just mentioned, but almost as often he ventures his own explicit comment on the legal application of a particular ḥadīth report or he comments on some transmitter.

Abū Dāwūd collected over one-third of the ḥadīth that make up his Sunan in Basra, about half that much in Baghdad, and over half altogether in Iraq. Mecca, Syria, Egypt, and the East (mainly the Jibāl and Khurāsān) each account for around one-tenth.

In theology, Abū Dāwūd was strictly Sunnī, taking his law and theology from ḥadīth and eschewing rational speculation. Two of his works are mainly quotations from Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal (nos. 6 and 7 in the list of his works above, with more than one hundred additional quotations in no. 8). Formal schools of law in the classical sense formed only after Abū Dāwūd’s lifetime, but it seems safe to say that Abū Dāwūd was as much a Ḥanbalī as any of his contemporaries.

Bibliography

For primary sources, see GAS 1:149–52, with further references.

See also al-Nawawī, Tahdhīb al-asmāʾ wa-l-lughāt, 3 vols. (Cairo 1927), 2:224–7, s.v. Abū Dāwūd, and al-Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ et al., 25 vols., Beirut 1401–9/1981–8.

The only significant study in European languages has been James Robson, The transmission of Abū Dāwūd’s Sunan, BSOAS 14 (1952), 579–88.

Two short monographs are available in Arabic: Taqī al-Dīn al-Nadwī al-Maẓāhirī, Abū Dāwūd, Aʿlām al-Muslimīn 19 (Damascus 1410/1990,

Urdu original publ. 1967), and Sāliḥ Muḥammad Muḥammad ʿUwayḍah, Abū Dāwūd Sulaymān b. al-Ashʿath al-Sijistānī, Beirut 1416/1996.

Several recent editorial introductions are still more useful, esp. al-Ājurrī, Suʾālāt Abī ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAlīm ʿAbd al-ʿAzīm al-Bastawī, 2 vols., Beirut and Mecca 1418/1997, and Abū Dāwūd, Suʾālāt Abī Dāwūd…lil-imām Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, ed. Ziyād Muḥammad Manṣūr, Medina 1414/1994.