Al-Tirmidhi

Biography

Name and lineage

Al-Tirmidhi's given name (ism) was "Muhammad" while his kunya was "Abu Isa" ("father of Isa"). His genealogy is uncertain; his nasab (patronymic) has variously been given as:

• Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah (محمد بن عيسى بن سورة)‎
• Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah ibn Mūsá ibn aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk (محمد بن عيسى بن سورة بن موسى بن الضحاك)‎
• Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah ibn Shaddād (محمد بن عيسى بن سورة بن شداد)‎
• Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah ibn Shaddād ibn aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk (محمد بن عيسى بن سورة بن شداد بن الضحاك)‎
• Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah ibn Shaddād ibn ‛Īsá (محمد بن عيسى بن سورة بن شداد بن عيسى)‎
• Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Yazīd ibn Sawrah ibn as-Sakan (محمد بن عيسى بن يزيد بن سورة بن السكن)‎
• Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sahl (محمد بن عيسى بن سهل)‎
• Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sahl ibn Sawrah (محمد بن عيسى بن سهل بن سورة)‎

He was also known by the laqab "ad-Darir" ("the Blind"). It has been said that he was born blind, but the majority of scholars agree that he became blind later in his life.

At-Tirmidhi's grandfather was originally from Marw (Persian: Merv), but moved to Tirmidh. According to Britannica Online, he was an Arab. According to S.H. Nasr and M. Mutahhari in The Cambridge History of Iran, Al-Tirmidhi was of Persian ethnicity. His uncle was the famous Sufi Abu Bakr al-Warraq. Al-Warraq was the teacher of Al-Hakim al-Samarqandi, a known associate of the famous theologian Abu Mansur Al-Maturidi.

Birth

Muhammad ibn `Isa at-Tirmidhi was born during the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun. His year of birth has been reported as 209 AH (824/825). Cited by

Adh-Dhahabi only states that at-Tirmidhi was born near the year 210 AH (825/826), Some sources indicate that he was born in Mecca (Siddiqi says he was born in Mecca in 206 AH (821/822))

while others say he was born in Tirmidh (Persian: Termez), in what is now southern Uzbekistan. The stronger opinion is that he was born in Tirmidh.

Hadith studies

At-Tirmidhi began the study of hadith at the age of 20. From the year 235 AH (849/850) he traveled widely in Khurasan, Iraq, and the Hijaz in order to collect hadith. His teachers and those he narrated from included:

• al-Bukhari
• Abū Rajā’ Qutaybah ibn Sa‘īd al-Balkhī al-Baghlāni
• ‘Alī ibn Ḥujr ibn Iyās as-Sa‘dī al-Marwazī
• Muḥammad ibn Bashshār al-Baṣrī
• ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mu‘āwiyah al-Jumaḥī al-Baṣrī
• Abū Muṣ‘ab az-Zuhrī al-Madanī
• Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Mālik ibn Abī ash-Shawārib al-Umawī al-Baṣrī
• Ismā‘īl ibn Mūsá al-Fazārī al-Kūfi
• Muḥammad ibn Abī Ma‘shar as-Sindī al-Madanī
• Abū Kurayb Muḥammad ibn al-‘Alā’ al-Kūfī
• Hanād ibn al-Sarī al-Kūfī
• Ibrāhīm ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Harawī
• Suwayd ibn Naṣr ibn Suwayd al-Marwazī
• Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Baṣrī
• Zayd ibn Akhzam al-Baṣrī
• al-‘Abbās al-‘Anbarī al-Baṣrī
• Muḥammad ibn al-Muthanná al-Baṣrī
• Muḥammad ibn Ma‘mar al-Baṣrī
• ad-Darimi
• Muslim
• Abu Dawud

At the time, Khurasan, at-Tirmidhi's native land, was a major center of learning, being home to a large number of muhaddiths. Other major centers of learning visited by at-Tirmidhi were the Iraqi cities of Kufa and Basra. At-Tirmidhi reported hadith from 42 Kufan teachers. In his Jami`, he used more reports from Kufan teachers than from teachers of any other town.

At-Tirmidhi was a pupil of al-Bukhari, who was based in Khurasan. Adh-Dhahabi wrote, "His knowledge of hadith came from al-Bukhari." At-Tirmidhi mentioned al-Bukhari's name 114 times in his Jami`. He used al-Bukhari's Kitab at-Tarikh as a source when mentioning discrepancies in the text of a hadith or its transmitters, and praised al-Bukhari as being the most knowledgeable person in Iraq or Khurasan in the science of discrepancies of hadith. When mentioning the rulings of jurists, he followed al-Bukhari's practice of not mentioning the name of Abu Hanifah. Because he never received a reliable chain of narrators to mention Abu Hanifa's decrees, he would instead attribute them to "some people of Kufa." Al-Bukhari held at-Tirmidhi in high regard as well. He is reported to have told at-Tirmidhi, "I have profited more from you than you have from me," and in his Sahih he narrated two hadith from at-Tirmidhi.

At-Tirmidhi also narrated some hadiths from Abu Dawud, and one from Muslim. Muslim also narrated one hadith from at-Tirmidhi in his own Sahih.

A.J. Wensinck mentions Ahmad ibn Hanbal as among at-Tirmidhi's teachers. However, Hoosen states that according to the most reliable sources, at-Tirmidhi never went to Baghdad, nor did he attend any lectures of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Furthermore, at-Tirmidhi never directly narrates from Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his Jami`.

Several of at-Tirmidhi's teachers also taught al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, and an-Nasa'i.

Writings

• Al-Jami' al-Mukhtasar min as-Sunan 'an Rasul Allah, known as Jami' at-Tirmidhi
• Al-'Ilal as-Sughra
• Az-Zuhd
• Al-'Ilal al-Kubra
• Ash-Shama'il an-Nabawiyya wa'l-Fada'il al-Mustafawiyya
• Al-Asma' wa'l-Kuna
• Kitab at-Tarikh

He is also reported to have a work on Islamic history and an exegesis of the Qur’an, but these are extinct.

Death

At-Tirmidhi became blind in the last two years of his life, according to adh-Dhahabi. His blindness is said to have been the consequence of excessive weeping, either due to fear of God or over the death of al-Bukhari.

He died on Monday night, 13 Rajab 279 AH (Sunday night, 8 October 892) in Bugh.

At-Tirmidhi is buried on the outskirts of Sherobod, 60 kilometers north of Termez in Uzbekistan. In Termez he is locally known as Abu Isa at-Termezi or "Termez Ota" ("Father of Termez").

Early Islam scholars

Notes

References

References

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