al-Daraqutni
918 CE–995 CE · Baghdad
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Umar al-Daraqutni was a hadith scholar of Baghdad, widely regarded in the Sunni tradition as one of the foremost critics (a "muhaddith," a specialist in evaluating reports of the Prophet Muhammad's words and deeds) of his age. His byname al-Daraqutni derives from Dar al-Qutn, a quarter of Baghdad where he was reportedly born; the biographical tradition most often gives 306 AH (918 CE), though some sources report 309 AH. Many early dates of this kind are traditional estimates rather than documented records. His death in 385 AH (995 CE) is more securely reported, and he is said to have been buried in the Bab al-Dayr cemetery in Baghdad, near the grave of Maruf al-Karkhi.
He studied first within Iraq, where he is reported to have frequented the scholarly centres of Wasit, Basra, and Kufa, before travelling to Syria (al-Sham) and Egypt. In Egypt he is reported to have enjoyed the patronage of the Ikhshidid vizier Ja'far ibn al-Fadl ibn al-Furat, known as Ibn Hinzaba, assisting him in compiling a hadith collection. Later he returned to Baghdad.
He is best known for the Sunan al-Daraqutni and for influential works on 'ilal (the hidden defects that weaken an apparently sound hadith) and on transmitters whose names are easily confused (al-Mu'talif wa al-Mukhtalif). He also wrote on Qur'anic recitation. Later biographers honoured him with grand titles such as "Commander of the Faithful in Hadith." In matters of law he is generally placed in the Shafi'i school, and in creed associated by later writers with Ash'ari theology; such school affiliations are how the later tradition classified him, not undisputed fact.
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Reportedly born in the Dar al-Qutn quarter of Baghdad, the source of his nisba 'al-Daraqutni.' The biographical tradition most often gives 306 AH (918 CE), though some sources report 309 AH; the birth date is a traditional estimate. The Baghdad birthplace is consistently reported in the biographical literature.
About Baghdad
Baghdad, on the Tigris, is the capital of modern Iraq. The Abbasid caliph al-Mansur founded it in 762 as his capital, and for five centuries it was a leading centre of Islamic learning, with the House of Wisdom, the Nizamiyya madrasa and many jurists, Sufis and scientists; Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, eponym of the Qadiriyya order, is buried there. The Mongol sack of 1258 ended the caliphate, and the city later passed to Ottoman rule. It was also a seat of the patriarchs of the Church of the East and of the exilarch who headed Babylonian Jewry. Its Jewish community, whose foremost nineteenth-century rabbi was Yosef Hayyim (Ben Ish Chai), almost entirely emigrated to Israel in 1950-52.
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