Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan
{{Short description|Eighth-century Basran hadith scholar}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| religion = Islam
| region =
| name = Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan rendered in Arabic calligraphy
| birth_date = 120 AH/738 CE
| death_date = 198 AH/768 CE
| main_interests = Hadith, biographical evaluation
| influences = Sufyan al-Thawri, Shu'ba ibn al-Hajjaj, al-Awza'i, Ibn Jurayj
| native_name_lang = ar
| native_name = يحيى بن سعيد القطان
| students = Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ali ibn al-Madini, Yahya ibn Ma'in, Ishaq ibn Rahwayh
| child =
| birth_place = Basra, Umayyad Caliphate
| death_place = Basra, Abbasid Caliphate
| parents =
| module = {{infobox Arabic name|embed=yes
|ism=Yaḥyā
|ism-ar=يَحْيَىٰ
|nasab=Ibn Saʿīd ibn Farrūkh
|nasab-ar=ٱبْن سَعِيد ٱبْن فَرُّوخ
|kunya=Abū Saʿīd
|kunya-ar=أَبُو سَعِيد
|laqab=Al-Qaṭṭān
|laqab-ar=ٱلْقَطَّان
|nisba=Al-Baṣrī
|nisba-ar=ٱلْبَصْرِيّ
}}
}}
Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan ({{langx|ar|يحيى بن سعيد القطان|translit=Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān}}; 120 AH/738 CE – 198 AH/813 CE) was a Basran hadith scholar of the tabi' al-tabi'in who is considered a progenitor of Sunni hadith criticism.{{Cite web |last=Little |first=Joshua |date=2022-11-09 |title=A Famous Report About Pious Fabrication in Hadith |url=https://islamicorigins.com/pious-fabrication-in-hadith/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612184244/https://islamicorigins.com/pious-fabrication-in-hadith/ |archive-date=2024-06-12 |access-date=2024-12-17 |website=Islamic Origins |language=en-GB}}
Biography
Yahya ibn Sa'id was born in Basra in 120 AH/738 CE to descendants of freed slaves from Banu Tamim; his work in the cotton trade earned him the nisba al-Qattan. He travelled to Medina, Baghdad and Kufa in pursuit of hadith. He audited the lessons of Shu'ba ibn al-Hajjaj for twenty years, as well as those of Sufyan al-Thawri. His other teachers included the grammarian Hammad ibn Salamah, the jurists Malik ibn Anas and al-Awza'i,{{Cite web |last=Ahatlı |first=Erdinç |title=YAHYÂ b. SAÎD el-KATTÂN |url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/yahya-b-said-el-kattan |access-date=2024-12-17 |website=İslâm Ansiklopedisi |language=tr}} and Ibn Jurayj, a substantial proportion of whose extant biographical information has been transmitted through al-Qattan.Motzki 2002, p. 284 His own students included Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ali ibn al-Madini, Yahya ibn Ma'in,Motzki 2002, pp. 249-250 and Ishaq ibn Rahwayh. He reportedly authored two works which have not survived: al-Ḍuʿafā, a book of unreliable hadith narrators, and Kitāb al-Maghāzī. Ibn Sa'id died in Basra in 198 AH/813 CE.
Views
Ibn Sa'id was critical of hadith that he transmitted without a sahabi narrator (i.e., mursal hadith),Motzki 2002, p. 249 and identified tadlīs performed by hadith narrators regardless of their stature, including his teacher and celebrated jurist Sufyan al-Thawri.Brown 2009, p. 234 He was known for his strict standards in biographical evaluation. He deemed several ascetics and Sufis as unreliable narrators and was sceptical of hadith transmitted through them. A famous statement that can be plausibly attributed to Ibn Sa'id through isnad-cum-matn analysis comments on how the pious (al-ṣāliḥīn) were most dishonest in matters of hadith, which has been adduced as evidence of hadith forgery among some early Muslims.
References
= Citations =
= Sources =
- Motzki, Harald (2002). The Origins of Islamic Jurisprudence: Meccan Fiqh Before the Classical Schools. Translated by Katz, Marion H. Brill. {{ISBN|9004121315}}
- Brown, Jonathan A.C. (2009). Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. {{ISBN|9781851686636}}
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