Al-Muʿāfā b.

ʿImrān and the Beginnings of the Ṭabaqāt Literature

Author(s): C. F. Robinson
Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society , Jan. - Mar., 1996, Vol. 116, No. 1
(Jan. - Mar., 1996), pp. 114-120
Published by: American Oriental Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/606379

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access
to Journal of the American Oriental Society

This content downloaded from

193.255.152.18 on Fri, 10 Mar 20hu, 01 Jan 1976 12:34:56 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Al-MuCdfa b. Clmrdn and the Beginnings of the Tabaqit Literature

Al-MuCafa b. CImran, an ascetic and muhaddith of the second century A.H., frequently appears in
the secondary literature as the author of the first tabaqdt work in Arabic. This brief article examines
the evidence for this attribution, rejects it, and brings together reports on al-MuC'fa and his contri-
bution to local Mosuli scholarship in the late second and third Islamic centuries.

In a recent volume of the Cambridge History of Arabic
Literature, al-Mu'Cfa b. CImran al-Mawsili (d. ca. 185
A.H.) is credited with a Kitab Tabaqat al-muhaddithin,
which is said to be the earliest biographical dictionary
in Arabic.' No authority is cited, but this view does not
seem to have entered the literature until relatively re-
cently,2 with an article that Hafsi wrote in 1976,3 in
which he explicitly states his debt to the first volume of
Sezgin's Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums.4 Sezgin
identified al-MuCafa among the earliest city historians
of the Abbasid period,5 arguing that Ibn Hajar used al-
Muc'fa's Ta'rikh al-Mawsil; he also suggested that Yazid
b. Muhammad al-Azdi (d. ca. 330) may have used it as
well, but under a different title, the Kitdb Tabaqdt al-
muhaddithin.6 It is apparently this attribution that lies be-
hind Hafsi's view. Now, it is worth noticing that the case
for giving al-MuC'fa pride of place in the tabaqdt genre
has been asserted rather than formally argued, and this is
surprising when one considers not only that Heffening
discussed several references to tabaqdt works that are not
only contemporaneous with or even precede Ibn Sacd's
(d. 230)-and, according to Hafsi, al-Mu'afa's-7 but
also have the virtue of coming from the centers of early
Islamic learning; for regardless of how one cares to de-
scribe the inspiration for the genre,8 one would expect its

1 M. J. L. Young, "Arabic biographical writing," in Cam-

bridge History of Arabic Literature: Religion, Learning and
Science in the CAbbasid Period (Cambridge, 1990), 172.
2 For some of the older literature, see 0. Loth, "Die Ursprung
und Bedeutung der Tabaqat" ZDMG 23 (1869): 593-614;
W. Heffening, "Tabakat" in the Supplement to the Encyclopae-
dia of Islam (Leiden, 1938), 214f.; H. A. R. Gibb, "Islamic Bio-
graphical Literature," in Historians of the Middle East, ed.
B. Lewis and P. M. Holt (London, 1962), 54-58; T. Khalidi, "Is-
lamic Biographical Dictionaries: A Preliminary Assessment,"
The Muslim World 63 (1973): 53-65; and M. Abiad, "Origine et
d6veloppement des dictionnaires biographiques arabes," BEO 31
(1979): 7-15. The most recent treatment is in Khalidi&4rabic
historical thought in the classical period (Cambridge, 1994),
46ff. and 204f., but here nothing explicit is said about origins.
3 I. Hafsi, "Recherches sur le genre Tabaqit dans la litt6rature
arabe" Arabica 23 (1976): 241: "Le tout premier receuil de
tabaqat signal6 par les biographes est celui d'al-Mufifa b. 'Im-
ran b. Nawfal al-Mawsili (mort en 184/800), appele K. Tabaqdt
Mawsili, der als Traditionarier ebenso als Historiker seiner
Stadt hervorgetreten ist .. " (citing Sezgin).
6 "Vielleicht wurde dieses Buch von Abu Zakariyfa... be-
nutzt, der ein K. Tabaqdt al-muhadditin von al-MuCafa als seine
Quelle bezeichnet" (GAS, 1:348).
7 Heffening noted that the Tabaqdt ahl al-Cilm wa'l-jahl of
Wasil b. CAta (d. 131) is cited by Yaqut (Irshad al-arib [Lon-
don, 1926] 7:225), and this reference might well derive from Ibn
al-Nadim (al-Fihrist [Tehran, 1971], 203). Loth ("Ursprung,"
603) was probably the first to note references to the Tabaqdt
al-fuqaha' wa'l-muhaddithin of al-Haytham b. CAdi (d. 207);
and to the sources that he and Heffening mention one can add
al-Khatib al-Baghdfdi (see A. D. CUmari, Masadir al-Khatib al-
Baghdcadi [Baghdad, 1971], 386), and more important, the dis-
cussion in S. Leder, Das Korpus al-Haitam ibn CAdi (Frankfurt
am Main, 1991), 258ff., on Muhammad b. CUthman b. Muham-
mad ibn Abi Shayba's recension of al-Haytham's material in Ibn
CAsakir.

al-muhadditin. On ne peut malheureusement rien dire de pr6cis,
le manuscrit 6tant perdu."
4 (Leiden, 1967), 348; hereafter abbreviated as GAS.
5 Apparently followed by van Ess, Theologie und Gesell-
schaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert Hidschra, vol. 2 (Berlin and
New York, 1992), 467, n. 12: ".... MuCafa b. CImran al-
8 Compare Heffening ("Tabakiat" 215): "...the tabakat lit-
erature did not arise out of the necessities of the criticism of
Tradition .... It much rather owes its origin to the interest of the
Arabs in genealogy and biography" and Abiad ("Origine," 14):
"la predominance de la litt6rature biographique dans l'historio-
graphie arabe s'explique par des facteurs inherents a la culture

114

This content downloaded from

193.255.152.18 on Fri, 10 Mar 2023 10:06:21 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 ROBINSON: Al-MuCafa b. 'Imran and the Beginnings of the Tabaqat Literature 115

birth to have occurred in the south, among the Basrans ing at all about the authorship of the Ta'rikh al-Mawsil;
and Kufans, rather than on the empire's periphery on the it simply identifies the source in which the reader will find
north. This said, it is certainly not impossible that a Mo- al-Mu'afa's citation of the hadith. Ibn Hajar did not think
suli such as al-MuC'fa could have anticipated his more of mentioning the author of the Ta'rikh in question simply
celebrated colleagues in the south, for as we shall shortly because any attentive reader of either his Isdba or Tah-
see, al-Mu'afa studied in Iraqi circles, and in any case dhib knew it well. It is the Ta'rikh al-Mawsil of Yazid b.
Syria seems to have produced a fairly early tabaqdt Muhammad al-Azdi, which here, as in many other cases,
work;9 all we need is the evidence to demonstrate that he is the name given to a now lost tabaqat work. In his Tah-
did. In these brief remarks I intend to show that although dhib, Ibn Hajar cites al-Azdi's biographical work at least
al-Mu'afa was a significant figure in late Umayyad and eleven times, and there it appears both as a ta'rikh and a
early Abbasid Mosul, there is in fact no firm evidence tabaqdt.'5 In his Isaba and Lisdn al-mizan it seems to
that he authored a history of Mosul-under any title. appear less frequently, but in both cases Ibn Hajar also
Sezgin adduces two pieces of evidence in support of his cites it as a ta'rikh and a tabaqat.16
view. The first comes from Ibn Hajar's tarjama of Umm The water is muddied somewhat by the fact that Ibn
CAbd Allah bint Aws al-Ansariyya, a companion of the Hajar occasionally refers to al-Azdi himself as "Abu
Prophet who transmitted a hadith that Ibn Hajar then Zakariya3 al-MuC'fa al-Mawsili"17 a name which is not
cites. The passage in question reads: la-ha hadith akhra- otherwise attested, and which in at least one case has ap-
jahu Ahmad f al-zuhd wa'l-Tabarani wa-lbn Manda wa'l- parently been misread by an inattentive scribe as "Abu
Mu'Cfai b. Clmran fi ta'rikh al-Mawsil wa'l-lafz la-hu al-MuC'fa."'8 But this has no significance for the question
min turuq Can .Hamza b. .Habib Can Umm CAbd Allah ukht of the ta'rikh's (or tabaqdt's) authorship. The tarjama of
Shaddad b. Aws annaha bacathat ila al-nabi ... 10 The cUtba b. Farqad, which Ibn Hajar credits in his lsaba to
crucial part might be translated as: "A hadith that is cred-
Abi al-MuCafa fi ta'rikh al-Mawsil,19 is much the same
ited to her is cited by Ahmad [b. Hanbal] in [his book on]tarjama that he credits in his Tahdhib to Abu Zakariyd/
asceticism,1 al-Tabarani,12 Ibn Manda,'3 and al-Mu'afa sahib ta'rikh al-Mawsil,20 and a variant of the same tra-
b. 'Imran in the Ta'rikh al-Mawsil." Although it is cer-dition is credited by Ibn al-Athir to al-Azdi as well.21 Ibn
tainly reasonable to take this passage as an allusion toHajar's
a practice is therefore significant only in that it
means that we should be on the lookout for scribal con-
book authored by al-MuC'fa b. CImran,14 here it says noth-
fusion about information credited to al-Mucafa b. 'Imran
by al-Azdi, and information provided directly by "Abu al-
arabe pr6islamique" with Hafsi ("Recherches," 227): "Le genre
Muc'fa" al-Azdi himself. Be that as it may, none of these
tabaqit est n6 dans le cadre du hadit et en est inseparable."
passages demonstrates that al-Mu'afa b. 'Imran wrote a
9 See G. Conrad, "Das Kitab al-Tabaqat des Abu Zur'a al-
ta'rikh or a tabaqdt; they tell us only that al-Azdi did.
Dimasqi (281 H.): Anmerkungen zu einem unbekannten frihen
This is why the multitude of tarjamas that concern al-
rial-Werk," Die Welt des Orients 19 (1989): 162-222.
Mu'cfa does not yield a single reference to a tabaqdt
10 Sezgin used the Calcutta edition of Ibn Hajar's al-Isdba fi
work in his name.
tamyiz al-sahaba (1856-63), 4:913. All the references to the
Isaba here are to the 1977, Cairo edition; for the passage in
question, see 13:244f. For Umm CAbd Allah bint Aws, see Ibn.Hajar al-CAsqaldni mu'arrikhan (Beirut, 1987), 213f. (in his
Sacd, Kitab al-tabaqat (Leiden, 1905-40), 32:32; Ibn CAbd Inba'
al- al-ghumr).
Barr, al-Istcab fi macrifat al-ashab (Hyderabad, 1336), 2:776;15 Tahdhib (Hyderabad, 1327), 1:9; 5:127; 7:101 and 295;
Ibn al-Athir, Tajrid asmda al-sahaba (Hyderabad, 1315), 2:343;
8:128; 10:116 and 199 (ta'rikh); and 2:51; 3:297; 4:253 and 439
idem, Usd al-ghaba fi macrifat al-sahaba (Cairo, 1280), 5:598.
(tabaqat).
11 See his Kitdb al-zuhd (Alexandria, 1980), 1:95 (where al-16 Lisan al-mizan (Hyderabad, 1331), 3:257; and Isaba, 6:221
Mucafa appears in the isnad). and 412 (ta'rikh). Lisdn al-mizan, 3:261f.; and Isdba, 1:74f.
12 See Sulayman b. Ahmad al-Tabarani, al-MuCjam al-kabir,
(tabaqdt).
2nd ed. (Mosul, 1990), 25:139f. 17 Ibn Hajar, Isaba 6:412.
13 On Ibn Manda, Abu CAbd Allah Muhammad b. Ishaq18 Ibn Hajar, Isaba 6:379.
(d. 395/1005), who was known particularly for his recension of
19 Along with CAbd Allah b. al-MuCtamm, cUtba is identified
Abu Hanifa's musnad, see Sezgin, GAS, 1:214f.; and El2, s.v.
as a commander of the forces that conquered Mosul; see al-
"Ibn Manda."
Baladhuri, Futah al-buldan (Leiden, 1866), 249 (undated),
14 For Ibn Hajar's use of qala fulan to indicate reliance on(year 20).
331ff.
written material, see G. H. A. Juynboll, Muslim Tradition (Cam-
20 Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 7:101.
bridge, 1983), 237 (in his Tahdhib); and M. CIzz al-Din, 21
Ibn
Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-ghaba, 3:365.

This content downloaded from

193.255.152.18 on Fri, 10 Mar 2023 10:06:21 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
116 Journal of the American Oriental Society 116.1 (1996)
Keeping in mind the two titles given to al-Azdi's
work-the ta'rikh and tabaqdt-we can now examine
the second piece of evidence cited by Sezgin. For this he
turned to F. Rosenthal's A History of Muslim Histori-
ography, where Rosenthal, working only from a Cairo
copy of al-Azdi's yet unpublished Ta'rlkh, noted a pas-
sage that he translated thus: "We gave a full account of
the history (akhbar) of al-MuCifa (b. CImran) in the
Kitab tabaqat al-muhaddit'n";22 the Arabic reads: wa-
qad dhakarna akhbar al-MuCafa fi kitab tabaqdt al-
muhaddithin dhikran mustaqsan.23 Although Sezgin seems
to have taken this to mean that al-Azdi used a tabaqdt
work from al-MuCafa's pen, once again the passage
refers only to al-Azdi's tabaqat of the learned men of
Mosul. This should hardly surprise us. Unlike his city
chronicle that has survived only in part, al-Azdi's taba-
qat was widely available in the medieval period,24 and
its popularity may have stemmed from its thorough-
ness, for al-Azdi's tarjama of al-MuCafa impressed al-
Dhahabi, who remarked that al-Azdi wrote over twenty
leaves (waraqa) on him.25 It is almost certainly from this
lengthy tarjama that both Ibn Hajar and al-Dhahabi
drew for much of their information on al-MuC'fa; in his
Siyar acldm al-nubala' al-Dhahabi explicitly acknowl-
edges his reliance on this tarjama, citing from it.26 Since
Ibn Hajar frequently draws on al-Azdi for material that
is absent in al-Mizzi's Tahdhib,27 it is also reasonable to
assume that he was drawing directly on al-Azdi's work.
If we assume that al-Azdi had completed his tabaqat
work when he cited it in his chronicle, we can date it
22 F. Rosenthal, A History of Muslim Historiography (Leiden,
1952), 133, n. 5 (= 2nd ed. [Leiden, 1968], 153, n. 5). Since
Rosenthal submitted the manuscript of the revised edition in
1964, he could not yet avail himself of 'Ali Habiba's edition of
the Ta'rikh al-Mawsil (Cairo, 1967).
23 TaVrikh al-Mawsil, 301.
24 Whereas only Ibn al-Athir seems to have used his annalis-
tic history of Mosul, many later authorities (e.g., al-Samcani,
Ibn CAsakir, Ibn Batish, Yaqut, Ibn Hajar, al-Mizzi, Ibn Maktla,
al-Khatib al-Baghdidi, and al-Dhahabi) made frequent use of
the tabaqdt work.
25 al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-huffa.z (Hyderabad, 1315), 1:262
(here called a ta'rikh).
26 al-Dhahabi, Siyar ac'lm al-nubald3 (Beirut, 1982), 9:81.
27 Cf., for instance, Ibn Hajar, Isaba, 6:221 and al-Mizzi,
Tahdhib al-kamdl fi asmad al-rijal (Beirut, 1992), 19:319ff.
(cUtba b. Farqad); Ibn Hajar, Isaba, 1:74 and al-Mizzi, Tahdhib,
3:241 (Asid b. Safwan); and Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 4:438f. and al-
Mizzi, Tahdhib, 13:237ff (Suhayb b. Sinan). I have L. I. Conrad
to thank for forcing me to think about al-Mizzi.
This content downloaded from
193.255.152.18 on Fri, 10 Mar 2023 10:06:21 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
to before 321, since this is when the latter broke off.28
Of course we have moved several generations' distance
from al-MuC'fa, and if al-Azdi has now gained a tabaqat
work, Mosul has lost pride of place in the development
of the genre. In any case, we are probably better off look-
ing for early tabaqat works in the south.
The precise lineage of Abu Masciid,29 al-MuC'fa b. 'Im-
ran, was a matter of some confusion,30 but he was around
sixty years old when he died in 184, 185, or 186.31 We can
therefore place his birth near the end of Hisham's reign,
when Mosul had just begun to emerge as a city in its
own right, particularly under the governorships of al-Hurr
b. Yusuf and al-Walid b. Talid.32 According to al-Azdi, his
great-grandfather Jabir b. Jabala had been among the first
of the B. Sulayma branch of the Azd to settle in the city,
and after him were named both a street and a mosque;
al-Mucafa also gave his name to a mosque,33 and the ac-
counts make it clear that he was a man of some status, who
generously distributed the wealth that he derived from his
28 See the account of CAll b. Muhammad al-Shimshati's his-
tory of Mosul, which is described in al-Najashi, Rijal (Beirut,
1988), 2:93f., as a continuation of al-Azdi's.
29 al-Suyiti (Tabaqdt al-huffiaz [Cairo, 1973], 120) records a
variant, Abu Sacid.
30 al-Azdi, (Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 113) gives his nisba as
"al-Muafai b. 'Imran b. Nufayl b. Jabir b. Jabala b. CUbayd
b. Kathir b. Mahasin," which almost certainly was the source for
Ibn Hajar's confused version (Tahdhib, 10:199, where he also
notes disagreement). Ibn Sa'd (Tabaqdt, 72:184) gives it as "al-
Muafai b. CImran b. Muhammad b. 'Imran b. Nufayl b. Jabir
b. Wahb b. CUbayd Allah b. Labid b. Jabala b. Ghanm b. Daws
b. Mahasin b. Salama b. Fahm." Cf. also the version given by
al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Ta'rikh Baghdad (Cairo, 1931), 13:227.
The he was an Azdi of the Fahm lineage is clear enough; see
al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, 28:147, and Ibn Hajar, Taqrib al-tahdhib
(Beirut, 1975), 2:258 (al-Azdi al-Fahmi), and where he is also
identified "among the greats of the ninth [tabaqa?]" (min kibdr
al-tasica), which does not seem to make much sense.
31 In his annalistic chronicle, al-Azdi (Ta'rikh al-Mawsil,
300f.) proposes the first two, whereas al-Mizzi (Tahdhib,
28:156f.), Ibn Hajar (Tahdhib, 10:200), al-Khatib (Ta'rikh Bagh-
dad, 13:229), and al-Dhahabi (Siyar, 9:85), all of whom had ac-
cess to al-Azdi's tabaqdt work, suggest all three dates.
32 See the accounts in al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, years 106-
121.
33 al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 113; cf. 90ff. Al-Azdi is unsure
about where the Sulayma are to be located genealogically; he
tentatively suggests that they are related to the B. Mahasin.
 ROBINSON: Al-Mu'cfa b. 'Imran and the Beginnings of the Tabaqat Literature 117

significant landholdings.34 His family's status probably The reason we can draw this rough portrait of al-
explains its prominence in local politics.35 Al-MuCafa's Mu'afa is that later authorities considered him ascetic, pi-
brother, Khalid b. 'Imran, was employed in the court of ous, and orthodox. It was as an ascetic that Ibn al-Nadim
al-Mutawakkil, and was later appointed governor of knew of him,46 and in words recorded by Ibn Hajar, he
Mosul, a position that he held upon the caliph's death.36 was "ascetic, virtuous, noble, generous and astute."47 His
Another brother, Sulayman b. 'Imran, also served in the credentials as an ascetic explain why he appears in the
administration of the city, and along with a nephew, Mu- isndds of several hadiths that relate stories of the Prophet's
hammad b. Zayd, participated in the tribal politics of the asceticism, of which CAbd Allah bint Aws al-Ansariyya's
city and region.37 Details of al-MuCafa's immediate family is only one.48 Although several of the Basrans with whom
are few and far between. He is said to have had four or al-Mu'afa studied (e.g., Sacid b. Abi cUruba) seem to
five sons, two of whom were killed in local tribal battles.38
have held Qadarite views,49 his own theology is described
Two, CAbd al-Kabir and Ahmad, followed in their father's in strict (and probably later) orthodox terms; he is said to
footsteps by transmitting hadiths from him;39 and al-Azdi
have held the view that the Qur'an is "God's speech, un-
preserves Ahmad's text of his father's appointment of a
created" (kaldm Allah ghayr makhliq).50 According to an
third, and eldest, brother, Nufayl, as his wasiy.40 Accord-
anecdote credited to Sufyan al-Thawri, al-MuCafa repre-
ing to one description, al-Mu'afa was grey haired and sented the standard by which local views were judged;
bearded, and wore a coarse, long-sleeved shirt, from those who spoke well of him he judged to be orthodox
which the tips of his fingers were barely visible;41 the (ashdb
de- sunna waa-amdca), and those who spoke poorly of
scription is certainly stereotypical, and it may-or may him (man C'bahu) he would judge to be innovators (ashab
not-be accurate. The Mosulis took local pride in al- bida ).51 Sufyan al-Thawri and Ahmad b. Hanbal are said
Mucifa,42 and imperial representatives attended his fu- to have waxed enthusiastic about al-MuCafa; the former
called him the "sapphire of the Culama'."52
neral.43 His tomb remained a point of pilgrimage well into
the medieval period,44 and al-Sam'ani (d. 562) was
among those who visited it.45
1:129. In the time of IsmScil b. Hibat Allah b. Batish (d. 655),
al-MuC'fa's tomb was located outside (zahir, the city walls) of
34 al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-huffdz, 1:262; idem, Siyar, 9:83.
Mosul, and continued to be the object of ziydras; see his Kitib
35 kana fi sharaf min al-Azd bi'l-Mawsil (al-Khatib, Ta'rikh
al-tamyiz wa'l-fasl bayna'l-muttafaq fi al-khatt wa'l-naqt wa'l-
Baghdad, 13:227); kana min wujah al-Azd (al-Dhahabi, Siyar,
shakl (Tunis, 1983), 629.
9:83). 46 Ibn al-Nadim, Fihrist, 235.
36 al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 82f. 47 Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 10:199. Cf. Ibn Hibban, Kitab al-
37 al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 87ff. (Cald salat al-Mawsil Thiqat
wa- (Hyderabad, 1982), 7:529; idem, Kitdb mashahir Culamd'
harbiha), 367, 371f., and 410f. al-amsdr (Cairo, 1959), 186 (min al-'ubbad al-mutaqashshifin
38 al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 81 (where the editor [notewa-ahl
7] al-fadlfi zuhd/din); and al-Samc'ni, Ansdb, 12:483 (min
suggests a date of 168); al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, 28:152 (on thezuhhdd
au- ahl al-Mawsil wa-'ubbddihi).
thority of Bishr al-Hafi); al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-huffidz, 1:262;
48 See, in particular, the hadiths preserved by al-Isfahani
al-Khatib, Ta'rikh Baghdad, 13:228. (.Hilyat al-awliyda [Egypt, 1938], 8:288ff.), and al-Sulami,
39 Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 10:199; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, 28:149f.;
(Tabaqdt al-Siifiyya [Leiden, 1960], 34 and 246); in these, and in
al-Dhahabi, Siyar, 9:81. many of those cited by al-Isfahani, Bishr al-Hafi (b. 150; d. ca.
40 al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 82. 226) relates on the authority of al-MuC'fa. Bishr is explicitly
41 al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, 28:150; al-Dhahabi, Siyar, 9:83. identified by al-Khatib (Ta'rikh Baghdad, 13:227) as among
42 Ibn Sacd, Kitab al-Tabaqdt, 72:184: kana yaftakhir ahlthose
al- who heard al-MuC'fa's hadith recitations upon his visits to
Mawsil bihi.
Baghdad; and cf. also Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat, 1:275.
43 E.g., CAmr b. al-Haytham, the governor of the city; al-Azdi,
49 See van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft, 2:62ff.; CAbd al-
Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 300f. Hamid b. Jacfar was considered by some as .da'if on account of
44 See al-Harawi, Guide des lieux de pelerinage, tr. J. Sourdel-
his Qadari views; see Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 6:112.
Thomine (Damascus, 1957), 157; and M. A. 'Umari, Munyat al-50 al-Dhahabi, Siyar, 9:83.
udabaiifi ta'rikh al-Mawsil al-hadba' (Mosul, 1955), 119. 51 al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 301; cf. Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib,
45 al-SamC'ni, Kitab al-ansab (Hyderabad, 1962-82), 12:483.
10:200, and al-Dhahabi, Siyar, 9:82. I am unable to explain why
The burial ground that took its name from al-MuC'fa was al-MuC'fa's
the name appears in one of the Mss of Ibn Shahrashub's
resting place of prominent local scholars in the seventh Islamic
Macalim al-'ulamd (Tehran, 1353), 111, with n. 1.
century; see Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-acyan (Beirut, 1977),
52 al-SamC'ni, Kitab al-ansab, 12:483. This last anecdote is
5:280; and Ibn al-Mustawfi, Ta'rikh Irbil (Baghdad, 1980),
reported in several sources.

This content downloaded from

193.255.152.18 on Fri, 10 Mar 2023 10:06:21 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
118 Journal of the American Oriental Society 116.1 (1996)

Aside from his prominence as a local ascetic and par- took him to Baghdad, where he recited traditions a num-
agon of right belief, al-MuCffa was above all a hadith ber of times.68 Among those who recited hadiths from al-
transmitter, and according to the sources, he was consid- Mucafa were contemporaries as famous as CAbd Allah b.
ered reliable (thiqa).53 He related hadiths from local al-Mubarak (d. 181),69 and Wakic b. al-Jarrah (d. 196 or
figures, and these included ascetics with apparently no 197),70 along with younger transmitters, such as Bishr al-
formal position in the city, such as Fath al-Mawsili Hafi and Muhammad b. Jacfar al-Warkani.
(d. 170),54 and Sabiq b. CAbd Allah (d. 189),55 as well as It is thus in the field of hadith, rather than that of rijdl,
two of the city's qadis, Macmar b. Muhammad,56 and al- that al-Mucafa is known in the sources as an author. He
Harith b. Jarud.57 According to al-Khatib al-Baghdadi's is said to have brought together traditions that concerned
sources, al-Mu'afa himself travelled to "far-off lands" to legal rulings (sunan), asceticism, extra-legal standards of
hear hadiths,58 and among his teachers we can iden- comportment (adab), and fitan,71 and in at least one
tify Madinans (CAbd al-Hamid b. Jacfar,59 and Sulayman source he is credited with a musnad.72
b. Bila160), Basrans (e.g., Sakhr b. Juwayriya, Shucba b. al- It is for local learning that al-MuCafa is particularly
Hajjaj, Hammad b. Salama, Abu CAwana,61 and Sacid important, and we can see this if we reflect on Mosuli
b. Abi cUruba62), Kufans (Sufyan al-Thawri,63 and Malik learning in the second century. Earliest Islamic Mosul
b. Mighwal64), Syrians (Thawr b. Yazid, the celebrated appears to have produced precious little scholarship, and
Al-Awzaci,65 and Hariz b. cUthman66), and Jazirans it fares poorly even when compared with another per-
(Jacfar b. Burqan67), Al-Mucafa's expertise in hadlth ipheral province, al-Jazira. Thus, Khalifa b. Khayyat
can identify no fewer than five tabaqdt of Jaziran schol-
ars, and can tell us something about many of these
figures.73 Among them is Maymun b. Mihran (d. 116 or
53 In addition to the sources already cited, see Abui Hatim 117), a Successor and intimate of 'Umar II;74 his re-
al-Razi, Kitab al-Jarh wa'l-tacdil (Beirut, 1953), 8:399f.; and
putation was such that he could even be counted among
al-CIjli, Ta'rikh al-thiqat (Beirut, 1984), 432.
the greatest Culamda of Hisham's time.75 Now, whether
54 al-Dhahabi, Siyar, 7:349; al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 246f.
Maymun, much like Makhul, actually knew any Com-
and 300.
panions or related hadiths from them is not at issue
55 al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 307f.
here;76 the point is that later Jaziran muhaddithun could
56 al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 173. claim him as one of their own. Meanwhile, Mosul could
57 al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 199; Juynboll, Muslim Tradi-
tion, 231.
58 al-Khatib, Ta'rikh Baghdad, 13:226 (ila al-buldan al-
nadiya); cf. Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 10:199. An account attributed to 68 al-Khatib, Ta'rikh Baghdad, 13:227.
al-Azdi and preserved by al-Dhahabi (Siyar, 9:81) puts him in 69 Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 5:382ff.; Sezgin, GAS 1:95.
Beirut. Here I shall make no attempt to work out a chronology 70 Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 11:123ff.; Sezgin, GAS, 1:96f.
of his travels, which a careful study of the rijal literature would 71 That is, the "trials" of the community-past and future; see
most likely yield; for a model, see G. Conrad, Abi'l-Husain al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, 28:150: sannafa hadithahu fi al-zuhd wa'l-
al-Razi (347/958) und seine Schriften (Stuttgart, 1991), 20ff. sunan wa'l-fitan wa'l-adab wa-ghayr dhalika; Ibn Hajar, Tah-
59 Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 6:11 lf. dhib, 10:199: sannafa hadithahu fi al-sunan wa-ghayr dhalika;
60 Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 4:175f.; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, 11:372ff. al-Suyuti (citing al-Khatib), Tabaqdt, 120: sannafa kutuban fi
61 The first three belong to Ibn Sacd's fifth tabaqa of Basrans, al-sunan wa'l-zuhd wa'l-adab. Might al-MuCafa have learned
and the last belongs to the sixth; see his Kitab al-tabaqdt, some of his fitan material from Ibn Lahica (see R. G. Khoury,
72:35-44. CAbd Allah Ibn Lahia (97-174/715-790): Juge et grand maitre
de I'ecole dgyptienne [Wiesbaden, 1986], especially 211ff.),
62 On Sacid, see Sezgin, GAS, 1:91f.; and van Ess, above, n. 49.
with whom he studied (al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, 28:149)?
63 According to Ibn al-Nadim (Fihrist, 281), al-MuCafa was
72 Ibn al-Athir, Tajrid asmad, 2:343.
among Sufyan's students who related their teacher's al-Jamic al-
saghir; and H.-P Raddatz (Die Stellung und Bedeutung des 73 Khalifa b. Khayyfat, Kitab al-tabaqat (Damascus, 1966),
2:818-27.
Sufyan at-Tauri (gest. 778) [Bonn, 1967], 34 and 107) takes
al-Mucafa as a representative of Sufyan's school. 74 On Maymun, see, for example, Ibn Sacd, Kitab al-tabaqat,
5:274, 280, 291f., and 8:92; Khalifa b. Khayyat, Kitab al-
64 From whom Sufyan is said to have learned traditions, and
tabaqat, 2:820; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 10:390ff.; al-Mizzi, Tah
who is also counted among the Cubbad ahl al-Kufa; see Ibn
Hajar, Tahdhib, 10:22f.; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, 27:158ff. dhib, 29:210ff.
65 Ibn Sacd, Kitab al-tabaqat, 72:170 and 185. 75 Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 10:391; al-Suyuti, Tabaqat, 39f.; an
66 Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 2:237ff.; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, 5:568ff.cf. Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi, Tabaqit al-fuqahad (Beirut, 1981), 75
67 Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-tabaqat, 72:181. 76 See Juynboll, Muslim Tradition, 45.

This content downloaded from

193.255.152.18 on Fri, 10 Mar 2023 10:06:21 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 ROBINSON: Al-Mucafa b. Clmran and the Beginnings of the Tabaqat Literature 119

claim no contemporaneous figure of his status, and the earliest-that Mosulis made regular travels to hear
Khalifa leaves us with a paltry list of five men, about hadith.82

whom he can say nothing.77 It is true that in Suhayb
b. Sinan the Mosulis could claim a Companion of the
Prophet and intimate of CUmar; but whereas we are
frequently at a loss to explain why certain figures were
deposited in the historical record,78 for Suhayb the rea-
son is fairly clear, and it has nothing to do with local
traditions of learning, and much to do with shu'cbiyya
debates. For Suhayb, who appears to have been a former
slave who claimed Arab ancestry,79 eventually came to be
seen as the first Byzantine to convert.80 Thus, although
Mosuli scholars as early as the time of MaCrif b. Abi
Macruf (d. 133) are said to have had access to hadiths
from the south,81 for these they probably relied on occa-
sional visits by peripatetic scholars and the odd settler
from the south. It is not until al-MuCafa's generation-at
77 E.g., al-Mughira b. Ziyad, CUmar b. Ayyub, al-MuC'fa,
CAfif b. Salim, and Ibn Abi Labiba; see Khalifa b. Khayyat,
Kitab al-Tabaqdt, 2:828.
78 See P. Crone's comment about the prosopographical lists
in the early sources (Slaves on Horses [Cambridge, 1980], 212,
n. 96): "In general, who participated in the events of the
Prophet's life was so loaded a question that it would be more in-
teresting to know how and why the relevant men came to be in-
cluded in the lists than whether they actually did participate:
even if we knew the historical names, we would still not have
the historical information required to identify the men behind
them."
Herein lies al-MuCafa's significance for Mosuli learn-
ing. The Mosulis seem to have turned to al-MuCafa to
connect the city's later tradition to the great figures of
second-century hadith study in Iraq; the connection is
presented in its crudest form by al-Khatib, who reports
that all of the Mosulis [who transmitted] hadiths received
them from al-MuCafa.83 He transmitted to his sons,84 as
well as to Mas'id b. Juwayriya (d. 248) among others,85
who recited to several Mosulis. Al-MuCafa's most impor-
tant local pupil was Muhammad b. CAbd Allah b. CAm-
mar (b. 162 and d. 242), a muhaddith and specialist in
rijdl.86 Ibn CAmmar, in turn, taught CAli b. Harb (b. ca.
170 and d. ca. 265),87 who is said to have met al-MuCafa,
but was presumably too young to learn directly from him.
An account recorded by al-Azdi and preserved by al-
Dhahabi suggests that CAli b. Harb was the foremost
hadith transmitter of his day in Mosul;88 and in addition
to his expertise in Traditions, CAli is also said to have had
knowledge of akhbdr and genealogy.89 In this latter ca-
pacity CAli is frequently cited by al-Azdi in his annalistic
history of the city; in at least one case he made use of
CAli's written account of al-CAttaf b. Sufyan's rebellion in
Mosul in 177.90
It is likely that Ibn CAmmar, and to a lesser extent, CAli
b. Harb, deserve most of the credit for collecting the in-
formation on al-MuC'faf b. CImran that al-Azdi would
record in his tabaqdt work, and which eventually reached

79 I. Goldziher (Muslim Studies, ed. S. M. Stern [Chicago, 82 Exactly when the Mosulis began to travel to hear hadith is
1966], 1:128) was the first to draw attention to Suhayb's fudged hard to pin down. According to one account recorded in al-Azdi
descent, but did not see it as a shucabi issue. The accounts of (Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 358f.), Ibrahim b. Musa al-Zayyat (Abu
Suhayb are numerous: see, for example, Ibn Sacd, Kitab al- Yahya; d. 205) was among the first Mosuli scholars to do so
tabaqat, 31:161ff.; al-Baladhuri, Ansdb al-ashraf (Cairo, 1959), (min awwal man rahala fi talab al-hadith min al-Mawdsila).
1:180ff.; Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad (Cairo, 1313), 6:15ff.; Ibn Juynboll (Muslim Tradition, 66ff.) tentatively dates the begin-
Qutayba, Kitab al-MaCarif (Cairo, 1960), 264f.; al-Isfahani, ning of rihlasfi talab al-'ilm to the beginning of the second cen-
Hilyat al-awliyad, 1:151 ff.; Ibn Hazm, Jamharat ansab al-'arab tury. If this is so, Mosul seems to have lagged behind by at least
(Cairo, 1977), 300f.; al-Dhahabi, Siyar, 2:17ff.; Ibn Hajar, one generation.
Tahdhib, 4:438f.; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, 13:238ff.; and N. Abbott, 83 al-Khatib, Ta'rikh Baghdad, 13:227.
Studies in Arabic Literary Papyri, I: Historical Texts (Chicago, 84 See above, note 39.
1957), 82ff., which includes other sources as well. 85 Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 10:116 (where al-Azdi is cited).
80 Thus, in the report cited by al-Baladhuri (Ansab, 1:181), he 86 On Ibn CAmmar, see Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 9:265; and Juyn-
is called sdbiq al-Ram. boll (Muslim Tradition, 239), who identifies him as a source for
81 We know of Macruf b. Abi Ma'rif, who is said to have Ibn Hajar.
learned hadiths from figures such as CAta> b. Abi Rabah, Muja- 87 See, for example, al-Khatib, Ta'rikh Baghdad, 5:416ff.
hid, and al-Hasan al-Basri, because he was killed in the mas-88 al-Dhahabi, Siyar, 13:140; kanat al-rihla ilayhi [i.e., to
sacre of the cityfolk of Mosul. But his name is curious, andMuhammad b. Ahmad b. Abi al-Muthanna, d. 277] bi 'l-Mawsil
considering that he is not at all prominent in the rijal literature,bacd CAli b. Harb.
89 al-Dhahabi, Siyar, 12:253; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib, 7:295; al-
I am inclined to think that much of his reputation was built upon
legend; see al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 147; and van Ess, The-Mizzi, Tahdhib, 20:364; Sezgin, GAS, 1:145.
ologie und Gesellschaft, 2:467. 90 al-Azdi, Ta'rikh al-Mawsil, 279.

This content downloaded from

193.255.152.18 on Fri, 10 Mar 2023 10:06:21 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
120 Journal of the American Oriental Society 116.1 (1996)

Ibn Hajar and al-Dhahabi among others.91 Needless to
say, only more spade work in the rijal literature will
confirm this suggestion. However, what is clear enough
is that it is not until the third Islamic century that the
study of rijal and akhbdr began to mature in Mosul, and
that it soon would take off; by the beginning of the
ran is interesting for plenty of reasons, but for disciplined
study in these fields-and their branches, such as the
tabaqdt literature-credit belongs only to his students'
students.93
C. F. ROBINSON

fourth, the city had already produced a rijal specialist as UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

accomplished as Abi YaCla (d. 307).92 Al-MuC'fa b. Im-

91 See, for example, al-Dhahabi, Siyar, 9:83. 93 I am grateful to F W. Zimmermann for reading an early
92 See H. Schiitzinger, "Abu YaCla al-Mausili: Leben und draft of this article.

Lehrerverzeichnis (Kitab al-MuCgam)," ZDMG 131 (1981):

281-96.

This content downloaded from

193.255.152.18 on Fri, 10 Mar 2023 10:06:21 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms