Abū ʿAmr Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Kashshī (), died 941 or 951 or 978, known as al-Kashshi or (in
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
) as Kashshi, was a
Twelver Shi'ite
Twelver Shi'ism (), also known as Imamism () or Ithna Ashari, is the largest branch of Shi'a Islam, comprising about 90% of all Shi'a Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers to its adherents' belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as th ...
scholar specializing in
biographical evaluation
Biographical evaluation (; literally meaning'' 'Knowledge of Men', ''but more commonly understood as the ''Science of Narrators)'' refers to a discipline of Islamic religious studies within hadith terminology in which the narrators of hadith are ...
() and
hadith studies
Hadith studies is the academic study of hadith, a literature typically thought in Islamic religion to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval of the Muhammad as transmitted through chains of narrators.
A major area of inter ...
. He is the author of the , a major biographical work which ranks as one of the four main sources in the Shi'ite literature.
[
][
][
][
] Al-Kashshi's original work is now lost, but parts of it survive in an
abridgement
An abridgement (or abridgment) is a condensing or reduction of a book or other creative work into a shorter form while maintaining the unity of the source. The abridgement can be true to the original work in terms of mood and tone (literature), ...
made by
Shaykh Tusi
Shaykh Tusi (), full name ''Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi'' (), known as Shaykh al-Ta'ifah () was a Persian scholar of the Twelver school of Shia Islam. He is the author of two of the Four Books of hadith; namely, '' Tahdhib al-Ahka ...
(995–1067) called the
.
Life
Al-Kashshi's exact date of birth is unclear. However, he is known to have been a contemporary of
Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni
Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kulaynī ar-Rāzī (; ; c. 250 AH/864 CE – 329 AH/941 CE) was a Persian Shia hadith collector.
Life
Al-Kulayni was born in Kulayn, a village or small town situated near Rey, Iran. His fa ...
(864–941), author of the
. Al-Kashshi and al-Kulayni shared a number of teachers such as
Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Naysaburi,
[
] as well as some students such as
Ibn Qulawayh
Ibn Qūlawayh () (died in Baghdad, 978 or 979 AD) was a Twelver Shia traditionalist and jurist. He is one of the authoritative traditionalists among the Shia.
Life
His official name was Ibn Qūlawayh (Qūlūya), Abu'l-Qasem Ja'Far b. Moḥammad b ...
. This would place al-Kashshi roughly in the same time period as al-Kulayni, i.e., somewhere between the middle of the 9th century and the middle of the 10th century.
[
He was born in city of Kesh or Kish (known today as ]Shahrisabz
Shahrisabz, lit. "Green City" in Persian, is a district-level city in Qashqadaryo Region in southern Uzbekistan. The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) has selected Shakhrisabz as its tourism capital for 2024.
It is located approximately 80& ...
) in Transoxiana
Transoxiana or Transoxania (, now called the Amu Darya) is the Latin name for the region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...
(today: Uzbekistan
, image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg
, image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg
, symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem
, national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...
).[
]
Writings
Al-Kashshi's works are all lost today. However, one work known as the survives in an abridgement
An abridgement (or abridgment) is a condensing or reduction of a book or other creative work into a shorter form while maintaining the unity of the source. The abridgement can be true to the original work in terms of mood and tone (literature), ...
made by Shaykh Tusi
Shaykh Tusi (), full name ''Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi'' (), known as Shaykh al-Ta'ifah () was a Persian scholar of the Twelver school of Shia Islam. He is the author of two of the Four Books of hadith; namely, '' Tahdhib al-Ahka ...
(995–1067), called the .biographical evaluation
Biographical evaluation (; literally meaning'' 'Knowledge of Men', ''but more commonly understood as the ''Science of Narrators)'' refers to a discipline of Islamic religious studies within hadith terminology in which the narrators of hadith are ...
of hadith
Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...
transmitters, the goal of which was to establish whether individual transmitters are to be regarded as trustworthy, and whether their narrations –one of the main sources of Islamic doctrine– should be accepted or rejected.[
][
]
The ranks as one of the four most important works in the Shi'ite biographical () literature.[
][
]
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kashshi, Muhammad ibn Umar al-
850s births
10th-century deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Year of death uncertain
People from Shahrisabz
10th-century scholars
10th-century Twelvers
Shia hadith scholars