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Ibn Qutayba
by Dr. G.F. Haddad
‘Abd Allāah ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba, Abūu Muh.ammad al-Dīinawarīi al-Marwazīi (213-276) the h.adīith Master, foremost philologist, linguist, and man of letters. Judgments on Ibn Qutayba differed. Al-Khat.īib, al-Qift.īi, al-Silafīi, al-Suyūut.īi, and others declared him a trustworthy and eminent Scholar of knowledge. Al-Bayhaqīi considers him one of the Karrāamiyya and his teacher, al-H.āakim, claims the consensus of the Community on declaring him a liar, an extreme exaggeration. Al-Dhahabīi in the Mīizāan reports from the Rāafid.īi-leaning Sibt. Ibn al-Jawzīi’s Mir’āat al-Zamāan al-Dāaraqut.nīi’s supposed judgment – without chain – that Ibn Qutayba leaned towards anthropomorphism and showed hostility to the Family of the Prophet e while Ibn Taymiyya labels him the spokesman of Ahl al-Sunna. Al-Dhahabīi objected: “The man is not an authority in h.adīith.” In the latter part of his life Ibn Qutayba regretted his kalāam days and wished he had steered completely clear of it.
When some students came asking Ibn Qutayba to narrate to them from Ish.āaq ibn Rāahūuyah, he said: “I do not narrate. In Baghdāad, there are eight hundred muh.addiths, each one of them like my teachers [status]. Therefore, I shall not narrate anything.”
Among Ibn Qutayba’s teachers are his father; Ah.mad ibn Sa‘īid al-Lih.yāanīi the colleague of Abūu ‘Ubayd al-Qāasim ibn Sallāam; the littérateur and historian of poetry Muh.ammad ibn Sallāam al-Jumah.īi; Ish.āaq ibn Ibrāahīim ibn Makhlad, known as Ibn Rāahūuyah the h.adīith Master; the grammarian Abūu Ish.āaq Ibrāahīim ibn Sufyāan al-Ziyāadīi; the martyred philologist and historian Abūu al-Fad.l al-‘Abbāas ibn al-Faraj al-Riyāashi al-Bas.rīi; the canonist and grammarian Abūu H.āatim Sahl ibn Muh.ammad ibn ‘Uthmāan al-Sijistāanīi; and al-As.ma‘īi’s nephew ‘Abd al-Rah.māan ibn ‘Abd Allāah ibn Qurayb al-Bas.rīi.
Among his students: His son the Qāad.īi al-qud.āat of Cairo, Abūu Ja‘far Ah.mad ibn Muslim who narrated all his father’s books meticulously; the Māalikīi muh.addith and qāad.īi Abūu Bakr Ah.mad ibn Marwāan al-Dīinawarīi, author of al-Mujāalasa wa Jawāahir al-‘Ilm, who transmitted Ta’wīil Mukhtalif al-H.adīith; Abūu Bakr Muh.ammad ibn Khalaf ibn al-Marzubāan al-ĀAjurrīi (d. 309), the author of al-Sharīi‘a; Abūu al-Qāasim Ibrāahīim ibn Muh.ammad ibn Ayyūub al-S.āa’igh who narrated all Ibn Qutayba’s books; the Imāam and h.adīith Master of Andalus Abūu Muh.ammad Qāasim ibn As.bagh al-Qurt.ubīi; and ‘Abd Allāah ibn Ja‘far ibn Durustūuyah al-Fāarisīi.
In his Tafsīir for the verse [And there is none of the People of the Scripture but he will certainly believe in him before his death, and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them] (4:159), Ibn al-Jawzīi states, concerning the pronoun “his” in before his death:
One explanation is that the pronoun refers to the person who believes... ‘Ikrima narrated: The soul of the Kitabee does not leave him except he bears witness to the prophethood of Muh.ammad (s). Another explanation is that the pronoun refers to ‘ĪIsāa. Ibn ‘Abbāas said that at the time he descends there shall not remain on the face of the earth any Kitabee or anyone that worships other than Allāah, all believing in ‘ĪIsāa and following him as the spirit from Allāah and His Word, His servant and Messenger. This is the position of Qatāada, Ibn Zayd, and Ibn Qutayba, and Ibn Jarīir al-T.abāarīi chose it.[1]
The books al-Imāama wal-Siyāasa and Tāarīikh al-Khulafāa’ are spuriously attributed to Ibn Qutayba by the Shīi‘īis. Ibn Qutayba counts the Shīi‘īis among the misguided sects and compared Shīi‘ism to Zoroastrianism.
Among Ibn Qutayba’s authentic works:
¨ Adab al-Kitāab.
¨ al-Akhbāar al-T.iwāal.
¨ al-Amwāal.
¨ al-Anwāa’.
¨ al-‘Arab wa ‘Ulūumuhāa on Arab intellectual history.
¨ al-Ashriba on alcoholic beverages.
¨ Dalāa’il al-Nubuwwa or A‘lāam al-Nubuwwa on the Proofs of Prophethood.
¨ Fad.l al-‘Arab ‘alāa al-‘Ajam in praise of the Arabs.
¨ Gharīib al-Qur’āan also known as Mushkil al-Qur’āan, on its lexical difficulties.
¨ I‘rāab al-Qur’āan, a philological commentary.
¨ al-Ikhtilāaf fīi al-Lafz. wa al-Radd ‘alāa al-Jahmiyya wal-Mushabbiha, a refutation of both the Allegorizers and the Anthropomorphists. This slim volume received editions in Egypt.
¨ al-Ishtiqāaq.
¨ Is.lāah. Ghalat. Abīi ‘Ubayd, corrections on al-Qāasim ibn Salāam’s Gharīib al-H.adīith.
¨ Jāami‘ al-Fiqh in jurisprudence, dispraised as unreliable by al-T.abarīi and Ibn Surayj, as was Ibn Qutayba’s al-Amwāal.
¨ Jāami‘ al-Nah.w al-Kabīir and Jāami‘ al-Nah.w al-S.aghīir.
¨ al-Jarāathīim in linguistics.
¨ al-Jawāabāat al-H.āad.ira.
¨ al-Ma‘āanīi al-Kabīir.
¨ al-Ma‘āarif, a slim volume that manages to cover topics from the beginning of creation and facts about the Jāahiliyya to the names of the Companions and famous jurists and h.adīith Masters.
¨ al-Masāa’il wal-Ajwiba.
¨ al-Maysar wal-Qidāah. on dice and lots.
¨ al-Na‘m wal-Bahāa’im on cattle and livestock.
¨ al-Nabāat in botany.
¨ al-Qirāa’āat in the canonical readings.
¨ al-Radd ‘alāa al-Qāa’il bi Khalq al-Qur’āan, against those who assert the createdness of the Qur’an.
¨ al-Radd ‘alāa al-Shu‘aybiyya, a refutation of a sub-sect of the ‘Ajāarida ‘At.awiyya, itself a sub-sect of the Khawāarij.
¨ al-Rah.l wal-Manzil.
¨ al-Shi‘r wal-Shu‘arāa’.
¨ Ta’wīil Mukhtalif al-H.adīith (“The Interpretation of Conflicting Narrations”), one of the earliest books on the subject of the apparent mutual contradiction of proof-texts (ta‘āarud. al-adilla) along with Ibn Fūurak’s Mushkil al-H.adīith and the foremost Sharh. Mushkil al-ĀAthāar of Imāam al-T.ah.āawīi. Of the scholars of h.adīith who collect narrations without pausing to understand what they write Ibn Qutayba says: “Some have called them the H.ashwiyya” – a term that literally means “crammers” and is traditionally used for anthropomorphists. He also refutes the enemies of Ahl al-Sunna who used rational arguments in order to disauthenticate the h.adīith or divest it of any real meaning in the manner of modern-day opponents of the Sunna both inside and outside the Muslim Community. For example, he explains the mention of the “baring of the shank” (sāaq) in the Qur’āan and Sunna as a metonymy for the travails in which one hitches up one’s lower garments, baring one’s legs, due to their intensity.[2] Ibn Qutayba also mocks the endless divisions of the proponents of non-Sunnīi kalāam into sub-sects such as the Abūu al-Hudhayl al-‘Allāaf (d. 230), the chief Mu‘tazilīi of Bas.ra who disagrees with his colleague al-Naz.z.āam (d. ~220-230); the Mu‘tazilīi al-Najjāar who disagrees with both of them; the Shīi‘īi anthropomorphist Hishāam ibn al-H.akam (d. 148) who disagrees with al-Najjāar; the Mu‘tazilīi Thumāama ibn Ashras who disagrees with Ibn al-H.akam; etc.
¨ Ta‘bīir al-Ru’yāa on the interpretation of dreams.
¨ Talqīin al-Muta‘allim min al-Nah.w in grammar.
¨ ‘Uyūun al-Akhbāar in history.
¨ ‘Uyūun al-Shi‘r in poetry.
Main source: al-Dhahabīi, Siyar 10:625-628 #2356.
Notes
[1]Ibn al-Jawzīi, Zāad al-Masīir (2:247-248).
[2]Cf. Ibn al-Jawzi, Daf‘ Shubah al-Tashbīih (Saqqāaf ed. p. 118-119).
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