ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿAwn bin Arṭabān al-Muzanī al-Ḥāfiẓ ( Arabic: عَبْد الَّلَه بِن عَوْن بِن أَرْطَبَان المُزَنِي الحَافِظ) was a
ḥadīth transmitter from
Baṣra who was a part of a core group of proto-Sunnī intellectuals.
He is alleged to have studied with the likes of
Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Makḥūl, and
Ibn Sīrīn, among others, and many later ḥadīth transmitters narrated from him.
Biography
ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿAwn was a
mawla of Ibn Barza al-Muzanī, hence the
nisba al-Muzanī, and early sources state that his mother was
Khurāsānī.
He studied in Kūfa and Baṣra and was said to have collected upwards of 7,000 ḥadīth after travelling throughout the
region of Syria and the
Hijaz.
[Ibn Qutayba al-Dīnawarī, al-Maʿārif, v. 1, 488.] From his home base in Baṣra, ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿAwn supported the
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...
s after the death of ʿ
Uthmān, and strongly condemned the stances of both the
Muʿtazila and the
Qadariyya (not to be confused with the
Qadiriyya).
[Ibn Saʿd al-Baghdādī, Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrá, v. 7, 195.] Aside from his status as an early intellectual, ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿAwn was regarded as a devoted Muslim, known for his humility and rejection of wealth. There are many anecdotes that highlight his use of lamentation, abstinence from careless speech, fasting, refraining from joking around, and avoidance of doing harm, be it to a king or to a chicken.
[Abu al-Faraj al-Jawzī, Al-Muntaẓim fi Tārīkh al-Mulūk wa al-Umam, v. 8, 152–4.] In addition, he is said to have gone out to Greater Syria (al-Shām) in order to
fight against non-Muslims on the
Byzantine frontier.
This point is notable as it represents the multifaceted nature of the devotion of early Muslims, which contains elements of learning, humility, and warfare. In this regard ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿAwn was similar to
ʿAbd Allāh bin Mubārak and Haywa bin Shurayḥ.
References
Hadith compilers
Hadith scholars
Hadith narrators
People from Basra
760s deaths
8th-century Islamic religious leaders
Scholars from the Umayyad Caliphate
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