Al-Tirmidhi

{{for multi|the 8th-century Sufi scholar|al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi|the surname|Tirmizi (surname)}}

{{Infobox religious biography

| name = Al-Tirmidhi

| image =

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| era = Islamic golden age

| religion = Islam

| birth_date = 824/ 209 AH

| birth_place = Termez, Abbasid Caliphate

| death_date = 9 October 892/ 13 Rajab 279 AH (aged 70)

| death_place = Termez, Abbasid Caliphate

| occupation =

| relations =

| region = Abbasid Caliphate

| denomination = Sunni

| language =

| nationality =

| period =

| tradition_movement =

| main_interests = Hadith

| notable_ideas =

| notable_works = Jami at-Tirmidhi
Shama'il Muhammadiyah

| influences = Muhammad al-Bukhari

| influenced =

| creed = Athari{{Cite journal |last=El Shamsy |first=Ahmed |year=2007 |title=The First Shāfiʿī: The Traditionalist Legal Thought of Abū Yaʿqūb al-buwayṭī (d. 231/846) |journal=Islamic Law and Society |volume=14 |issue=3 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40377944 |pages=324–325 |publisher=Brill Publishers |jstor=40377944 |access-date=2021-12-26 |archive-date=2021-12-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211226175841/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40377944 |url-status=live }}{{Cite book|last=Bearman, Bianquis, Bosworth, Donzel, Heinrighs |first=PJ. , TH. , C. E. , E. Van and W. P. |title=The Encyclopedia of Islam: New Edition Vol. X|publisher=Brill |year=2000|isbn=90-04-11211-1| location=Koninklijke Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands |page=544}}

}}

Muhammad ibn Isa al-Tirmidhi ({{langx|ar|محمد بن عيسى الترمذي|translit=Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā at-Tirmidhī}}; 824 – 9 October 892 CE / 209–279 AH), often referred to as Imām at-Termezī/Tirmidhī, was an Islamic scholar, and collector of hadith from Termez (early Khorasan and in present-day Uzbekistan). He wrote al-Jami` as-Sahih (known as Jami` at-Tirmidhi), one of the six canonical hadith compilations in Sunni Islam. He also wrote Shama'il Muhammadiyah (popularly known as Shama'il at-Tirmidhi), a compilation of hadiths concerning the person and character of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. At-Tirmidhi was also well versed in Arabic grammar, favoring the school of Kufa over Basra due to the former's preservation of Arabic poetry as a primary source."Sibawayh, His Kitab, and the Schools of Basra and Kufa." Taken from Changing Traditions: Al-Mubarrad's Refutation of Sībawayh and the Subsequent Reception of the Kitāb, p. 12. Vol. 23, Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics. Ed. Monique Bernards. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1997. {{ISBN|9789004105959}}

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 ({{lang|ar|محمد بن عيسى بن سورة}})‎
Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah ibn Mūsá ibn aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk ({{lang|ar|محمد بن عيسى بن سورة بن موسى بن الضحاك}})‎

{{cite book|last=Abdul Mawjood|first=Salahuddin ʻAli|title=The Biography of Imām at-Tirmidhī|translator=Abu Bakr ibn Nasir|year=2007|publisher=Darussalam|location=Riyadh|isbn=978-9960983691|edition=1st}}{{cite book|title=تذهيب تهذيب الكمال في أسماء الرجال (Tadhhīb tahdhīb al-kamāl fī asmā' al-rijāl)|year=2004|publisher=al-Fārūq al-Hadīthah lil-Ṭibāʻah wa-al-Nashr|location=Cairo|isbn=9773700100|author=Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Dhahabī (d. 1348)|author-link=al-Dhahabi|language=ar|page=248|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e2c6SUL5kn0C&pg=PT247|access-date=2015-10-19|archive-date=2016-06-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624005132/https://books.google.com/books?id=e2c6SUL5kn0C&pg=PT247|url-status=live}}

{{cite book|title=Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary|year=1843|orig-year=Written 1274|publisher=Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland|location=Paris|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_XeMtAAAAIAAJ/page/n696 679]–680|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_XeMtAAAAIAAJ|author=Ibn Khallikan|author-link=Ibn Khallikan|chapter=At-Tirmidi the traditionist|others=Translated from Wafayāt al-a‘yān wa-anbā’ abnā’ az-zamān by Baron Mac Guckin de Slane}}

{{cite wikisource |author=Ibn Kathir (d. 1373) |authorlink=Ibn Kathir |wslanguage=ar |chapter=ثم دخلت سنة تسع وسبعين ومائتين |trans-chapter=Then entered year 279 |plaintitle=البداية والنهاية (al-Bidāyah wa-al-nihāyah) |wslink=البداية والنهاية/الجزء الحادي عشر |anchor=الترمذي |volume=11}}

Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah ibn Shaddād ({{lang|ar|محمد بن عيسى بن سورة بن شداد}})‎{{cite encyclopedia |last=Wensinck |first=A.J. |title=al-Tirmidhī |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936) |publisher=E. J. Brill |location=Leiden |year=1993 |volume=8 |pages=796–797 |isbn=9004097961 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ro--tXw_hxMC&pg=PA796 |access-date=2015-10-19 |archive-date=2016-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512120852/https://books.google.com/books?id=ro--tXw_hxMC&pg=PA796 |url-status=live }}
Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah ibn Shaddād ibn aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk ({{lang|ar|محمد بن عيسى بن سورة بن شداد بن الضحاك}})‎

{{cite journal |last1=Robson |first1=James |date=June 1954 |title=The Transmission of Tirmidhī's Jāmi' |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=258–270 |publisher=Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies |doi=10.1017/S0041977X0010597X |jstor=609168 |s2cid=127754171 }}

Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah ibn Shaddād ibn ‛Īsá ({{lang|ar|محمد بن عيسى بن سورة بن شداد بن عيسى}})‎
Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Yazīd ibn Sawrah ibn as-Sakan ({{lang|ar|محمد بن عيسى بن يزيد بن سورة بن السكن}})‎
Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sahl ({{lang|ar|محمد بن عيسى بن سهل}})‎{{cite book|last=Lane|first=Andrew J.|title=A Traditional Mu'tazilite Qur'an Commentary: The Kashshaf of Jar Allah al-Zamakhshari (d. 538/1144)|year=2006|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden|isbn=9004147004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MNfFPLD9COcC&pg=PA385|page=385|access-date=2015-10-19|archive-date=2016-05-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501223940/https://books.google.com/books?id=MNfFPLD9COcC&pg=PA385|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last=Sezgin|first=Fuat|title=تاريخ التراث العربي (Tārīkh al-turāth al-'arabī)|year=1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WyFAirl2ndQC&pg=PT208|author-link=Fuat Sezgin|language=ar|others=Translated by Mahmud Fahmi Hijazi|volume=1|at=Part 4. p. 209|access-date=2015-10-19|archive-date=2016-05-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510012722/https://books.google.com/books?id=WyFAirl2ndQC&pg=PT208|url-status=live}}
Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sahl ibn Sawrah ({{lang|ar|محمد بن عيسى بن سهل بن سورة}})‎

{{cite book|title=التضامن الدولي في النظام الإسلامي والنظم الوضعية : دراسة مقارنة (al-Taḍāmun al-dawlī fī al-niẓām al-Islāmī wa-al-nuẓum al-waḍʻīyah : dirāsah muqāranah)|year=2007|publisher=Dār al-Yaqīn|location=Mansoura, Egypt|isbn=9789773362409|author=Rushdī Abū Shabānah ʻAlī al-Rashīdī|edition=1st}}

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.

{{cite book|last=Hoosen|first=Abdool Kader|title=Imam Tirmidhi's contribution towards Hadith|year=1990|publisher=A.K. Hoosen|location=Newcastle, South Africa|isbn=9780620153140|edition=1st}}

At-Tirmidhi's grandfather was originally from Marw (Persian: Merv), but moved to Tirmidh.

According to Britannica Online, he was an Arab.{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Tirmidhi | title=Al-Tirmidhī | Muslim scholar | Britannica }} According to S.H. Nasr and M. Mutahhari in The Cambridge History of Iran, Al-Tirmidhi was of Persian ethnicity.{{Cambridge History of Iran|last1=Nasr|first1=S. H.|last2= Mutahhari|first2=M.|chapter=The Religious Sciences |volume=4 |page=471 }} His uncle was the famous Sufi Abu Bakr al-Warraq.{{Cite journal |title=Abū Bakr al-Warrāq |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1875-9831_isla_com_0048 |access-date=2023-03-14 |website=Encyclopaedia Islamica|doi=10.1163/1875-9831_isla_com_0048 |url-access=subscription }} Al-Warraq was the teacher of Al-Hakim al-Samarqandi, a known associate of the famous theologian Abu Mansur Al-Maturidi.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

=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).

{{cite journal |last1=Banuri |first1=Muhammad Yusuf|author-link=Muhammad Yusuf Banuri|date=April 1957 |title=الترمذي صاحب الجامع في السنن (al-Tirmidhī ṣaḥib al-jāmi' fī al-sunan) |journal=Majallat Al-Majmaʻ Al-ʻIlmī Al-ʻArabīyah |volume=32 |page=308 |location=Damascus |language=ar}} Cited by {{cite book|last=Hoosen|first=Abdool Kader|title=Imam Tirmidhi's contribution towards Hadith|year=1990|publisher=A.K. Hoosen|location=Newcastle, South Africa|isbn=9780620153140|edition=1st}}

{{cite book|title=شرح علل الترمذي Sharḥ 'Ilal al-Tirmidhī|editor=Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali|editor-link=Ibn Rajab|year=1978|author=Nur al-Din Itr|edition=1st|publisher=Dār al-Mallāḥ|chapter=تصدير Taṣdīr|trans-chapter=Preface|language=ar|page=11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMHumJ9OopcC&pg=PT10|access-date=2015-10-19|archive-date=2016-05-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511030746/https://books.google.com/books?id=SMHumJ9OopcC&pg=PT10|url-status=live}} Adh-Dhahabi only states that at-Tirmidhi was born near the year 210 AH (825/826), thus some sources give his year of birth as 210 AH.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Juynboll |first=G.H.A. |title=al-Tirmidhī |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition |date=24 April 2012 |publisher=Brill Online |url=http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/al-tirmidhi-SIM_7569 |access-date=2016-09-16 |archive-date=2016-09-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921023453/http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/al-tirmidhi-SIM_7569 |url-status=live }}{{cite book|editor-last=Wheeler|editor-first=Brannon M.|title=Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim Exegesis|year=2002|publisher=Continuum|location=New York|isbn=0826449565|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lo9jAavEHdIC&pg=PA358|page=358|chapter=Glossary of Interpreters and Transmitters|access-date=2015-10-19|archive-date=2016-07-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160723035124/https://books.google.com/books?id=Lo9jAavEHdIC&pg=PA358|url-status=live}} Some sources indicate that he was born in Mecca (Siddiqi says he was born in Mecca in 206 AH (821/822))

{{cite book|last=Siddiqi|first=Muhammad Zubayr|title=Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development & Special Features|page=64}}

while others say he was born in Tirmidh (Persian: Termez), in what is now southern Uzbekistan.{{cite book|last=Ali|first=Syed Bashir|title=Scholars of Hadith|year=2003|publisher=IQRAʼ International Educational Foundation|location=Skokie, IL|isbn=1563162040|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6HRKMXkxnkAC&pg=PA118|access-date=2015-10-19|archive-date=2016-04-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428135855/https://books.google.com/books?id=6HRKMXkxnkAC&pg=PA118|url-status=live}} The stronger opinion is that he was born in Tirmidh. Specifically, he was born in one of its suburbs, the village of Bugh (hence the nisbats "at-Tirmidhi" and "al-Bughi").{{cite book|last=Adamec|first=Ludwig W.|title=Historical Dictionary of Islam|year=2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham, MD|isbn=9780810861619|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtDFey6MXJkC&pg=PA307|edition=2nd|page=307|access-date=2015-10-19|archive-date=2016-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515090347/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtDFey6MXJkC&pg=PA307|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Termez|url=http://www.uzbek-travel.com/uzbek-cities/city/12.html|publisher=www.uzbek-travel.com|access-date=2013-01-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120924024627/http://www.uzbek-travel.com/uzbek-cities/city/12.html|archive-date=2012-09-24|url-status=dead}}

=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.{{cite web | url=http://daruliftaa.com/node/7130 | title=Imam Tirmidhi and his Al-Jami' al-Sunan (الجامع السنن للإمام الترمذي رضي الله عنه) | date=26 March 2005 }}

Death

At-Tirmidhi was 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){{efn|In the Islamic calendar, the weekday begins at sunset.}} 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

External links

[http://www.muslimscholars.info/manage.php?submit=scholar&ID=30005 Biodata at MuslimScholars.info]
[https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/about Biography at Sunnah.com]
[http://www.sunnah.org/history/Scholars/imam_tirmidhi.htm Biography of Imam al-Tirmidhi at Sunnah.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010032617/http://www.sunnah.org/history/Scholars/imam_tirmidhi.htm |date=2018-10-10 }}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080214101424/http://www.theclearpath.com/viewtopic.php?t=100 Biography of al-Tirmidhee at theclearpath.com]

Category:Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam

Category:Transoxanian Islamic scholars

Category:Persian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam

Category:Hadith compilers

Category:Hadith scholars

Category:9th-century Persian-language writers

Category:Muslim scholars persecuted by Hanbalis

Category:People from Surxondaryo Region

Category:Shafi'is

Category:9th-century Islamic religious leaders

Category:9th-century Muslim scholars of Islam

Category:824 births