Al-Tahawi

Abu Ja'far al-Ṭaḥāwī
Personal Details
Born 853 CE / 239 AH[1]
Died 21 November 933 CE / 321 AH[1] (aged 80)
Era Abbasid Caliphate
Religion Islam
Creed Hanafi[2][3][4]

Imam Abū Ja'far Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭaḥāwī or simply al-Ṭaḥāwī (الطحاوي) was (853–21 November 933) a Sunni Islamic Scholar who was from the Hanafi madhhab.[1]

Biography

Taḥawi was born in the village of Taha in upper Egypt[5][1] to an affluent family.[6] He began his studies with his maternal uncle Isma`il ibn Yahya al-Muzani, a leading disciple of Shafi`i.[5][1][7][8] When Tahawi was about 20 years old he abandoned the Shafi'i school and transferred to the Hanafi school.[8] Different versions are given by his biographers of his conversion to the Hanafi school,[8] but the most probable reason seems to be that the system of Abu Hanifa appealed to his critical insight more than that of Shafi'i.[1]

Tahawi then studied under the head of the Hanafis in Egypt, Ahmed ibn Abi Ibrahim, who had himself studied under the two primary students of Abu Hanifa, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani.[8] Tahawi next went to Syria in 268/882 for further studies in Hanafi Law and became the pupil of the chief judge of Damascus.[8][9]

Tahawi gained an extraordinary knowledge of hadith in addition to Hanafi jurisprudence [10] and consequently his study circles attracted many scholars who related hadith from him and transmitted his works.[8] Among them were al-Da'udi, the head of the Zahiris in Khurasan and al-Tabarani well known for his biographical dictionaries of hadith transmitters.[8][11]

Tahawi's extraordinary knowledge of hadith in addition to Hanafi jurisprudence is evident from his significant book Kitab ma'ani al-athar and his concise creed (aqida) has also achieved a prominent place among most Sunni scholars to this day.[10]

Legacy

The scholars of his time praised him and mentioned him as being a scholar of Hadith (Muhaddith), one whose report was reliable and an established narrator. He was viewed as a distinguished and highly proficient writer and became known as the most knowledgeable of fiqh amongst the Hanafis in Egypt. This was even though he had a share in the fiqh of all of the madhabs of fiqh and hadith, and he knew of the various sciences of Islam. Ibn Yoonus said of him, "At-Tahaawee was reliable, trustworthy, a Faqeeh, intelligent, the likes of whom did not come afterward."

In his introduction to Sharh Aqida al-Tahaweyah (pages 17–19) the editor Zuhayr Shawish describes Tahawi:

He was the Imam, the Muhaddith, the Faqeeh, the Haafidh, the noble Scholar, Abu Ja'far Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Salaamah Ibn Salama 'Abdil-Malik Ibn Salama Al-Azdee At-Tahawi. He was educated under many shuyookh, whom he took knowledge and benefited from. He had more than three hundred teachers. He would spend lots of time with those scholars that came to visit Egypt from different parts of the world, such that he would add to his knowledge what knowledge they had. This shows you the extent of the concern he had for benefiting from the scholars, as well as the intense eagerness he had for acquiring knowledge. Many scholars praised him and described him as being reliable, trustworthy, a Faqeeh, intelligent, a good memorizer and a pious worshipper. He had a high proficiency in fiqh and Hadeeth.

Works

He left behind many other works, close to forty different books, some of which are still available today. His works include:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sharif, M. M. A History of Muslim Philosophy. 1. pp. 244–245. ISBN 9694073405.
  2. ↑ A.C. Brown, Jonathan (2009). Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Foundations of Islam). Oneworld Publications. p. 166. ISBN 978-1851686636.
  3. ↑ Hiroyuki, Concept Of Territory In Islamic Thought, p 56. ISBN 1136184538
  4. ↑ Josef W. Meri, Jere L. Bacharach, Medieval Islamic Civilization: A-K, index, p 6. ISBN 0415966914
  5. 1 2 Glassé, Cyril. The New Encyclopedia of Islam. p. 444. ISBN 0759101906.
  6. ↑ Martijn Theodoor Houtsma, Sir Thomas Walker Arnold, René Basset, The encyclopaedia of Islām: a dictionary of the geography, ethnography and biography of the Muhammadan peoples, Volume 4 p 609.
  7. ↑ Ibn Abi al-Wafa, Jawahir (Cairo), 1:273
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Powers, David; Spectorsky, Susan; Arabi, Oussama. Islamic Legal Thought: A Compendium of Muslim Jurists. pp. 123–126. ISBN 9004255885.
  9. ↑ Ibn Asakir, Tariqh Madinat Dimashq, 5.367
  10. 1 2 Lucas, Scott C., "Constructive Critics, Hadith Literature, and the Articulation of Sunni Islam: the Legacy of the Generation of Ibn Sad, Ibn Maain, and Ibn Hanbal", Islamic History and Civilization, p. 93
  11. ↑ Kawthari, al-Hawi, 238
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