According to al-Dhahabi, his name was Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Salamah ibn 'Abd al-Malik ibn Salamah, al-Azdi al-Hajari al-Misri al-Tahawi al-Hanafi.[13]
Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī was born in the village of Ṭaḥā in upper Egypt in 853 (239 AH)[14][1] to an affluent Arab family of Azdī origins.[15] He began his studies with his maternal uncle, Ismāʿīl ibn Yaḥyā al-Muzanī, a leading disciple of ash-Shāfiʿī,[14][1][16][17] but in 873 (259 AH), at approximately 20 years of age, aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī abandoned the Shāfiʿī school of jurisprudence in favour of the Ḥanafī school.[17] Different versions are given by his biographers of his conversion to the Ḥanafī school,[17] but the most probable reason seems to be that the system of Abū Ḥanīfa appealed to his critical insight more than that of ash-Shāfiʿī.[1]
Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī then studied under the head of the Ḥanafīs in Egypt, Aḥmad ibn Abī ʿImrān al-Ḥanafī, who had himself studied under the two primary students of Abū Ḥanīfa, Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī.[17] Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī then travelled to Syria in 882 (268 AH) for further studies in Ḥanafī jurisprudence and became pupil to Abū Khāzim ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, the chief qāḍiofDamascus.[17][18]
Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī gained a vast knowledge of ḥadīth in addition to Ḥanafī jurisprudence[19] and his study circles consequently attracted many students of knowledge who related ḥadīth from him and transmitted his works.[17] Among them were al-Da'udi, the head of the Zahiris in Khurasan, and aṭ-Ṭabarānī, well known for his biographical dictionaries of ḥadīth transmitters.[17][20]
Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī was famed for his expertise in both ḥadīth and Ḥanafī jurisprudence even during his own lifetime, and many of his works, such as Kitāb Maʿāni al-Āthār and ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwīyyah, continue to be held in high regard by Sunni Muslims today.[19]
Many of aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī's contemporaries praised him and noted him as both a reliable scholar and narrator of ḥadīth. He was widely held as a distinguished and prolific writer and became known as the most learned faqīh amongst the Ḥanafīs in Egypt, despite having knowledge of all the madhāhib. Over fifteen commentaries have been produced on his creedal treatise, ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwīyyah, including shuruh by the Hanafi jurist Ismail ibn Ibrahim al-Shaybani and the Taymiyyan-inclined Ibn Abi al-Izz.[21]
^Martijn Theodoor Houtsma, Sir Thomas Walker Arnold, René Basset, The encyclopaedia of Islām: a dictionary of the geography, ethnography and biography of the Muslim peoples, Volume 4 p 609.
^ abcdefgPowers, David; Spectorsky, Susan; Arabi, Oussama (25 September 2013). Islamic Legal Thought: A Compendium of Muslim Jurists. pp. 123–126. ISBN978-9004255883.
^ abLucas, Scott C., "Constructive Critics, Hadith Literature, and the Articulation of Sunni Islam: the Legacy of the Generation of Ibn Sad, Ibn Maain, and Ibn Hanbal", Islamic History and Civilization, p. 93
Islam
Egypt
