The life and work of Imam Sulaymān Ibn Aḥmad Al-Ṭabarānī with specific reference to his scientific travels: A supplement to the biography

Abstract

Imam Al-Ṭabarānī, Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad ibn Ayyūb ibn Muṭayyir, is one of the greatest hadith authorities in the Islamic history, and one of the most prolific writers in the field of hadith. His most famous works are three hadith encyclopedias better known as Mu'ğam: Al-Mu'ğam al-Kabīr, AlMu'ğam al-Awṣaṭ, and Al-Mu'ğam al-Ṣaġīr. Apart from these three well-known works, he wrote many other works, some of which were printed, and a number of which are considered lost. Among the most famous lost works of Imam Al-barabarānī is Al-Sunnah. The importance of this lost work is reflected in the fact that great Islamic authorities such as Al-Ḏahabīja, Ibn al-Kaṯīr, Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn al-Qayyim, Al-Mizzī, Al-Suyuṭī and others cited quotations from the said lost work in their own works. Imam Al-Ṭabarānī lived a hundred years and his life was filled with scientific journeys, and we will rarely find that any Islamic authority had as many scientific journeys as Imam Al-Ṭabarānī did. In this paper, I tried to pay special attention to these scientific journeys and to offer their chronological overview. While doing so, I mostly relied on his work Al-Mu'ğam al-Ṣaġīr, in which Imam Al-Ṭabarānī mentioned the place and date where he heard a hadith when narrating it. Then I tried to list all the works of Imam Al-Ṭabarānī, whether they were printed or lost. I also mentioned the narrations of the greatest Islamic scholars and historians about Imam Al-Ṭabarānī and his virtues, as well as some of his most prominent teachers and disciples.

Keywords

• imam al-ṭabarānī
• hadith
• isfahan
• al-mu'ğam al-kabīr
• al-mu'ğam al-awṣaṭ
• al-mu'ğam al-ṣaġīr
• scientific travels