Sources of Ibn Abi Al Dunyas Kitab Maqtal Amir Al Mumimim Ali

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Sources of Ibn Abī 'L-Dunyā's Kitāb Maqtal Amīr Al-Muʾ Minīn ʿAlī

Author(s): James A. BellamyReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 104, No. 1, Studies in Islam and theAncient Near East Dedicated to Franz Rosenthal (Jan. - Mar., 1984), pp. 3-19Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/602640 .

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SOURCES OF IBN ABI 'L-DUNYA'S

KI TAB MAQTAL AMIR AL-MUDMININ cALI

JAMES A. BELLAMY

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

THIRTY YEARS AGO WHEN I BEGAN to study Arabicunder Franz Rosenthal, I was not aware that myyoung professor already had behind him a distin-guished career as an orientalist of more than tenyears' duration. The gap in my knowledge was soonfilled, but I still retain undiminished my first impres-sion, that of a skillful and dedicated teacher, whose

performance in class was always impeccable, and whotried, more by example than by precept, to instil in hisstudents the same respect for high standards thatanimated his own scholarship. This small contributionto Muslim historiography-offered to the acknowl-edged master of the field-is but a token of myindebtedness to him.

Students of early Muslim history and hadTth itera-ture often have considerable difficulty in indentifyingthe ultimate sources of the authors of the works theynormally consult. The difficulty arises, in the firstinstance, from the practice, commonly followed byMuslim scholars, of citing sources by isndd rather

than by author and title. There are two reasons forthis unusual method of citation. The first is that inearly times most books of traditions did not havetitles. They were simply the collections of individualtraditionists, variously called usCl, kutub, ajz ',dafdtir, in which they recorded what they receivedfrom their sheikhs; thus there were few real titles, inthe modern sense, to record. Second was the wide-spread practice of merely excerpting one's sources(intikhdb, intiqd:'), rather than copying the wholework from beginning to end ('ald wajhihi). The trans-mitter takes only what he wants for his own purposes,which may have nothing to do with

the author's aimas expressed in the title. Subsequent transmittersmaynot even know that the material goes back to a titledwork, or even that such a work ever existed.

Early books of Muslim history, consequently, con-sisted for the most part of collections of anecdotes(akhbdr) relating to this or that event, to each ofwhich was prefixed an isnad. A modern researcher

may have to deal with numerous anecdotes relatingtoa given event, which stem from quite disparatesources. Without a method for getting at his ultimatesource through the isnad, he runs the risk of misinter-preting his data. He may not be able to distinguishbetween an early and a late account; he may beunable to detect biased reporting; he may not be able

to decide whether an isndd, even if complete andapparently sound, really belongs to the khabar towhich it is attached; and finally, he may not be able todistinguish in the welter of names the true "historian,"that is, the man who made it his business to huntdown the story and record it, from those who reportedit to him, or from those who transmitted it from himto succeeding generations of scholars.

The problems are often compounded by certainother practices that were adopted by later Muslimhistorians. The worst that can happen is that thehistorian omits the isnads entirely and rewrites thetexts into a continuous narrative. A lesser sin iscommitted when the historian gives all his isndds atthe beginning of his account, but combines the texts,taking a bit from here and a bit from there, to create acontinuous narrative. The result is still better when headopts one source only for his main text, not report-ing the others though he gives their isndds. Sometimeshe inserts extra interesting anecdotes from his othersources into his text, but identifies them individually.The ideal situation occurs when each khabar is kept inits pristine form, with its own isnad and unalteredtext. Men who worked in this fashion were not his-torians in the modern sense, but rather collectors of

historical data, whose works resemble nothing somuch as collections of index cards, each containing anitem of information with a note as to its source.

For many years orientalists failed to appreciatefully the usefulness of isndd-study and rejected asunimportant the problems that they raised. Isnddswere sometimes considered a mere literaryadornmentto the text, and were not trusted, especially when they

3



4 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984)

went back beyond A.H. 100, the time around which itwas thought that they came into general use in report-ing hadith.

The underlying reason for the neglect of isnads was,however, that until recently no one had developed anacceptable technique for handling them. This situa-tion was happily remedied by Fuat Sezgin in his studyon the sources of BukhdrT Bubarf'nin Kaynaklari,Istanbul, 1956), in which he elaborated a new methodfor dealing with isndds. Sezgin summarizes his methodand its results in GAS, i, 1-83, in particular, pp. 82-83. Ursula Sezgin in her work on Abti Mikhnaf, citesthe latter passage,' and applies the technique in elicit-ing the sources of that historian.

The mechanics of the technique are as follows: "Allthe isnads of the book, the direct sources of whichinterest us, are placed on index cards, and these cards

are arranged according to the name of the latesttransmitter. Beginning with the first common name,we seek for further common names among the suc-cessive members. The last of these gives us the authorof the source used in the book in question. Forexample, if the names of the transmittersare the sameonly in the first member, and thereafterdifferent, thismeans that the first man is the author of the sourceemployed, and that his material goes back to a varietyof sources. If the names are common as far back asthe second, third, and further members, this indicatesthat the first common names give us the transmitters,and the last common name before the branching off

gives the author of the source. Once the sources of abook have been determined, one can search out thesources of the sources in the same manner with thesame cards."2

The final step, in dealing with sources with titles, isto check the common names in the bibliographicalliterature to see whether these persons are noted ashaving authored works, which might have contained,judging from the content, the khabar cited by ourauthor.

This method has, to be sure, some obvious limita-tions. First of all, there is the subjective element inassigning citations to a given title, especially when

several titles are ascribed to a single author. Then too,one should not assume that the bibliographers pickedup every title that a given author produced. A goodexample is Ibn Abi '1-Dunydhimself. Ibn al-Nadim

(Fihrist, p. 185) lists only 33 of his works; yet more

than forty have survived. It is reasonable to assume

that many early works passed out of existence al-

together without leaving a trace in the bibliographicliterature.

Sezgin's technique will obviously not work with

unique isnads, since at least two are required before

common names can be found. Even several com-

pletely identical isnads can be inconclusive. For

example, in the group I, C below, if we had no other

data, and if we did not know that Hishdm and the

"sheikh of al-Azd" had both composed works on the

assassination of 'All, we might be induced to see

Jundab or his son as authors of the written source,

instead of informant and transmitter.

Despite these limitations, however, Sezgin's method

is the most promising development that has taken

place in hadith/akhbdr literature in many years, andwill doubtless prove its worth as it is applied to more

and more early works susceptible to such analysis. It

enables us to date the first appearance of a given

khabar in a written compilation, and will enable us

ultimately to acquire at least a partial view of the

contents of these early collections. In the end we will

be better able to detect tendentious and downrightspurious akhbar, as well as false isnads. Such a happysituation will come about, of course, only after all theworks suitable for such treatment have been dealtwith. The purpose of this study is to make one small

contribution toward that end.

Sometime during the third century of the Hijrah,Abti Bakr 'Abdalldh b. Muhammad b. 'Ubayd al-

Qurashi, better known as Ibn Abl l-Dunyd (208-281 /823-894)3 compiled a collection of anecdotal materialrelating to the assassination of the Caliph 'All. Thiswork has been preserved in a single manuscript,Damascus, Zahiriyya, MajmU' 95, ff. 231-250.4 At

least one leaf, containing the original title page andthe first part of the text has been lost, but the title asgiven in the colophon is K. Maqtal AmTral-Mu'minTn'AlTb. AbTTalib. The work is referred to by al-Tisl asMaqtal AmTr al-Mu'minTn,5 and as simply Maqtal

'AlT, by the anonymous Damavcus bibliography of

' Abii Mikhnaf, p. 38.2

GAS, i, 8.

3 For the main facts of his life, see GAL, i, 160; Suppl. i,

247, and the article by A. Dietrich, E?2, iii, 684.4 See YUsufal-'Ushsh, Fihris Makhtiadt Dar al-Kutub al-

Zahiriyya: al- Ta'rikh wa-Mulhaqatuhu, Damascus, 1366/

1949, p. 82.5 TUsi, FPhrist, p. 130.



BELLAMY: Ibn AbT 'I-Dunyd's Kitab Maqtal Amir al-Mu'min-n 'All 5

Ibn Abli 'l-Dunyd's writings.6Two copyists shared in

producing this manuscript; the later hand appends areading note at the end (f. 249a) dated 7 Jumadd I,438/9 November 1046.

Ibn Abl 'l-Dunyd's work on the assassination of'All is well suited to the analysis of isndds, since it

fulfills the ideal requirements of a collection of his-torical akhbar as noted above. The compiler scrupu-lously cites the isnad for each anecdote and does notcombine the texts to make a running narrative.

The work as it is preserved contains about 120

anecdotes that deal with the assassination of 'Ali andsome other aspects of his life and death as shown inthe chapter headings cited below. The first 29 anec-dotes deal with the conspiracy, the attack on theCaliph, the simultaneous attacks on Mu'dwiya and

'Amr b. al-'As, apprehension of the assassins, 'All's

removal to his house, and his medical treatment. Thissegment may have had a title, but if so, it has beenlost with the first missing folio. Thereafter we find thefollowing chapters: Wasiyyat 'AlT b. AbT Tdlib(f. 236a); Mawt 'AlT b. AbT TTalibf. 238b); Sinn 'AlTb. AbT TTalibf. 239a); Sifat 'All b. AbTTdalibf. 240a);Ghusl cAlTb. AbT Tilib wa-takflnuhu wa-dafnuhu(f. 240a); Mawdic dafn cAlTf. 240b); Amr ijdhdmIbn

Muijam wa-qatlihi (f. 241b, this section contains addi-tional information on other events subsequent to the

assassination); Nadb 'AlT wa-mardthThi (f. 245a);Wuld cAlTb. AbT Talib (f. 247a to the end, f. 249a).

In this short work Ibn Abli l-Dunyd transmits from

no fewer than 45 different informants, so it is notpossible within the limited space available to analyzeall the isnads. I have therefore chosen those which are

most suitable for our purpose, which is to determine

as closely as possible the written sources from whichthe akhbar ultimately stem. As noted above, uniqueisnads will not answer this purpose, and so more than

half the akhbar would be excluded in any event. I

have selected those informants most relied on by the

compiler, as well as two others, whose original texthas either been preserved, or for which a substitutehas been found.

In the presentation that follows, the name of IbnAbli 'l-Dunya's immediate informant is centered on

the page and marked with a Roman numeral. There-after follow brief biographical notes on him and theearlier common names in his isnad back to and

including the earliest common figure, the historian ormuhaddith from whose written work the material isultimately drawn. Then follow the isnads and transla-tions (enclosed in quotation marks) or summaries of

the akhbar to which they are attached. Before eachisndd is a capital letter which changes as the earliestcommon name changes; the individual akhbdr arenumbered in Arabic numerals. Then come brief noteson the historian's informants, in so far as these can beidentified.

I. MUHAMMAD B. 'UBAYD

Ibn AbM -Dunyd reports most frequently-a totalof 18 akhbdr-on the authority of his father Muham-mad b. cUbayd, about whom we know next to nothing.The only biography of him is found in al-Khat-b al-

Baghdadi's history of Baghdad, and seems to havebeen compiled by the author from various isnads inwhich he had found his name.7We do not know thathe was the author of any works beyond his ownnotebooks.

Muhammad b. cUbayd's akhbar, with a single ex-ception, are taken from the famous historian Hishamb. Muhammad al-KalbT(d. 204/819).8 There can belittle doubt that Muhammadtook these from Hisham'swork, entitled K. Maqtal CAll, which is mentioned byNajdshi, though not noted in the much longer lists ofhis works provided by Ibn al-Nadim and Ydqiit.9Theone exception is an abbreviated khabar (f. 239b) on

the authority of Shabbdba b. Sawwar, in which cAllmentions that he went to war at the age of twenty andhe was then approaching the age of sixty. A longerversion with the same isnad from Shabbdba back tocAll is cited by Abil 1-Faraj al-IsfahdnL'.0

A, 1. 1. Muhammad b. cUbayd, 2. Hishdm b.

Muhammad, 3. Abii cAbdalldh al-Ju'fT, 4. Jdbir,5. Abiu Jacfar Muhammad b. cAll b. Husayn.

"When God wished to honor cAll by the destruc-tion of Ibn Muljam, Ibn Muljam lingered in themosque of the Banil Asad until nightfall. Then hewent to one of the houses of Kindah. A week before

that, cAll had mounted the minbar and said: Therehas come to pass what was decreed through thetongue of the illiterate prophet, 'No believer will hate

6 Asmd' musannaqft AbTBakr 'Abdallah b. Muhammad b.

'Ubayd b. AbT 'I-Dunya cald huraf al-mucjam. MS Damas-

cus, Zahiriyya, Majmoc 42, f. 59b.

7 TB, ii, 370.

GAS, i, 268f.

9Najashi, p. 339; Fihrist, p. 96; Yaqut, xix, 288; cf. Aba

Mikhnaf, p. 114, note 39.10

Aba 'I-Faraj, p. 27.




you, and no infidel will love you.' They are frustratedwho have committed crimes and invented slander. ButI last night saw in a dream that a devil struck me ablow which dyed my beard from my head with freshblood, but did not hurt me. Know, 0 'All, that youwill be slain, if God wills. So what is the mostwretched of them waiting for to dye this with this?

"Then he passed his right hand over his beard andthen his head, and came down from the minbar.When it was the night on which he was struck and hewent out to perform the evening prayer, the geesehonked at one another about him, and he said: Theyare present as cryers and mourning women. Thesinner lay in wait for him until it was the hour for himto come out; then he went and stood beside the door.'All came out and he struck him a blow. Muhammadb. al-Hanafiyya was near him and he seized him. The

people leaped upon Ibn Muljam to kill him, but hesaid to them: Let him not depart so long as I survive,and if I live, I will exact vengeance from the man orleave him to God, but if I die, then a life for a life."(f. 234a)

A, 2. 1-5 as above. An appendage to 'Ali's ethicaltestament which immediately precedes it. Abi Ja'farstates that cAlT made the testament at his death; hissecretary cUbaydallah b. Abli Rafic wrote it as cAll

dictated. (f. 236b)A, 3. 1-5 as above. After cAlT'sdeath, al-Hasan

struck Ibn Muljam a blow which took off some of hisfingers, and killed him with a second blow. He had

been instructed by cAll to kill him as CAlT ad beenslain, that is, with one blow. He expiated the secondblow by performing the pilgrimage on foot and bydividing his property with God three times. (f. 243b)

A, 4. 1-4 as above, 5. man nazara ild bni Muljam.Physical description of Ibn Muljam.

A, 5. 1-3 as above, 4. cUrwa b. cAbdallah 5. Zahr

b. Qays. (Most likely the name Jabir has fallen out of

the isnAd between 3 and 4.) Zahr, sent by al-Hasan,carries the news of cAll's assassination to al-Husaynin al-Madd'in. Its reception. Some refuse to believe

that cAlTis dead. (f. 245a)The above anecdotes were transmitted to Hishdm

by Abti 'Abdallah al-Husayn b. cAll al-JucfT,a celi-bate ascetic and muezzin, who served for 60 years as

Koran-readerin the Ju'fi mosque in Kufa. He died in

DhU 'Il-Qa'da203/ May 819." His nisba shows that hewas related to his teacher, the author of the ultimatesource from which Hisham derived his material.

Jdbir b. Yazild al-Ju'fi was a well-known Shi'ite

historian, and the author of several books whose titles

have been preserved, among them a K. al-Jamal,

K. Siffjn, K Nahrawan, and, more important to us, a

K. Maqtal AmTral-Mu'minfn, from which Hisham's

material ultimately derives. Even among Shi'ite biog-

raphers there is considerable doubt as to Jdbir's relia-

bility. He is said to have believed in the ultimate

return of 'All to earth; he is called a liar and some say

that his hadith should not be written. On the other

hand, Sufydn al-ThawrTand Shucba transmittedfrom

him, and the former is quoted as stating that he was

truthful. Jabir died in 128/746, according to others, in

129 or 123.12

Despite his uncertain reputation, which seems to be

founded more on his religious beliefs than his abilities

as a historian, Jabir's version of events has to be

considered seriously. He had access to members of'All's family, as the first three anecdotes cited above

show. Abti Ja'far Muhammad b. 'All b. al-Husayn

died in 114/732;'3 his father 'All was 23 at the time of

Husayn's death which occurred in A.D. 680,14 so both

father and son must have been well acquainted with

the circumstances surrounding 'Ali's death. The infor-

mation probably came from Husayn himself.

Jabir's other informant is not so well known. Most

likely he was cUrwa b. cAbdallah b. Qushayr Abti

Mahl al-Jucfi. His nisba favors this identification, as

well as the period in which he lived; he transmitted

from Ibn Sirtn (d. 110/729), and Sufyan al-Thawr

(d. 161/778) transmitted from him.'5Zahr b. Qays al-JucfT, the eyewitness, who brought

the bad news to al-Husayn in al-Mada'in, is men-

tioned by Ibn Abl Hatim as having performedthis sad

duty.'6 Al-ShacbT transmitted from him, see below,p. 13. Al-TUsT ives his name as Zahr; the editor notes

that the forms Zajr and Zahr are also found.'7

B, 1. 1-2 as above, 3. rajul min Nakhac, 4. Salihb. Maytham.

Ibn Muljam slips a note to CAll exhorting him to

repentance from polytheism and declaring his hostility

to him. CAll spits on the writing, erases it, and throws

the paper away. (f. 234a)

" Ansab, iii, 292f.; Ibn Sacd, vi, 276f.

12 GAS, i, 307; AbC4Mikhnaf, pp. 85, 133; Ansab, iii, 292;

Kishshl, p. 169ff.

i Nasab Quraysh, p. 59.14 Ibid.. p. 58.Is Jarh, iii, 1, 397.16 Ibid., i, 2, 619.

17TUls. Rivjl, p. 42.



BELLAMY: Ibn AbT 'I-Dunyd'sKitab Maqtal Amlr al-Mu'minin cAll 7

B, 2. 1-4 as above, 5. 'Imran b. Maytham, 6. his

father Maytham.'All though wounded completes the prayer, moving

his bleeding head from place to place. (f. 232b)

B,3. 1-4 as above, 5. Maytham.

A mob assaults Ibn Muljam after his attack on'All; he remains impassive. (f. 234b)"8

I am unable to say with certainty just who the

anonymous rajul min Nakha' is from whom Hishdm

received these anecdotes. It is probable that Hishdm,or one of the later rawls, that is, either Ibn Abl 1-

Dunya or his father, deliberately concealed the name,not that Hisham had forgotten, or that the man wasso unimportant that his name was not worth remem-

bering; see the anonymous shaykh min al-Azd in the

next section.

The most likely possibility is Sharfk b. 'Abdallah

Abil 'Abdalldh al-Nakha'T (95-179/714-795), aBukharian by birth who settled in Kufa, where he

served as qadd under al-MansUrand al-Hadl. He was

generally considered a trustworthy transmitter of

hadith, but he made many mistakes. Although an

Abbasid official, he had frequently to defend himself

against the accusation of being a Shi'ite. He is notmentioned by al-TfisT;his name, however, appears in

isnads of anecdotes relating to the life of Ali.'9 The

biographies do not associate him with either Hishamor the family of Maytham, but he did transmit from

Jdbir al-Ju'fl, and it is possible that the latter's name

has fallen out of these isndds. Al-Khat-ibal-BaghdadT

devotes an unusually long passage to him, which isindicative of his importance as well as his contro-versial character.20

The family of Maytham were devoted supporters of

the Alids, though not much is known about them.The father Maytham, the most famous of the family,

whose full name, as put together from the varioussources noted below, is Maytham b. Yahya AbuSalih al-Asadi al-Tammar al-NahrawanT,was martyredin Kufa under 'Ubaydallah b. Ziyad (ruled 60-64/680-683). His biography contains mainly stories illus-trating his gift of second sight. He knew of the deathof Mu'awiya and the accession of Yazld before the

news reached Kufa. He predicted the time and manner

of his own death as well as that of the Caliph cAll.21

Some of his descendants adopted the nisba Maythaml.22The son 'Imran is called trustworthy (thiqa), and

both he and his brother SAlihwere companions of the

imams al-Baq-r and al-S. diq.23

C, 1. 1-2 as above, 3. Shaykh min al-Azd, 4. CAbd

al-Rahmdn b. Jundab, 5. his father Jundab.

Al-Hasan prayed over 'All and buried him in the

Rahba. (f. 241a)

C, 2. 1-5 as above.

'AlTdied on Sunday, 11 nights remaining of Rama-

dan, year 40. (f. 239a)C, 3. 1-5 as above.

Jundab asks CAll if they should swear allegiance to

al-Hasan. CAll replies: I do not order you (to do so),

and I do not forbid you. Followed by wasiyya to al-

Hasan and al-Husayn. (f. 237a)

In the above group the anonymous shaykh min al-Azd, from whom Hisham transmits, is none other

than the famous AbU Mikhnaf Lfit b. Yahyd al-Azd!

(d. 157/774). This identification is certain since we

learn from our sources, first, that he transmittedfrom

'Abd al-Rahman b. Jundab;24secondly, that Hisham

transmitted many of Abu! Mikhnaf's works,25 and

finally that Abu! Mikhnaf was the author of a

K. Maqtal AlT.26 This work, which was extensively

used by Tabari and Abu 1-Faraj al-IsfahanT, is

obviously the source from which Hisham took this

material.Abui Mikhnaf's informant, CAbd al-Rahman b.

Jundab, and his father Jundab b. cAbdallahal-Asadi,are mentioned by TlUs as companions of 'All b. AbY

Talib,27 but are not found in the other rijdl-books.Ursula Sezgin points out, however, that according to

an isnad in Tabari, II, 59, 'Abd al-Rahman was at theaj ~~~~~~~~2battle of Dayr al-Jamajim in the year 82/701. Abu

Mikhnaf was born around 70/689, so if 'Abd al-

Rahman lived only a few more years, there is no

difficulty about the contact between the two.

The next group of three anecdotes Hisham trans-mits from his father Muhammad b. al-Sa'ib al-KalbI,

18 Abfi 'l-Faraj, p. 36, gives a slightly different version of

this khabar with the isnad: Abii Mikhnaf, ba'du ash/bind,

Salih b. Maytham, his brother 'Imran.19

E.g., TB, I, 137, In. 13; 138, In. 4.20 Ibid., ix, 279-295; see also Ibn Sa'd, vi, 263-4.

21 Kishshi, pp. 74f.; TUsT, Rijdl, p. 58.

Lubab, iii, 199.23 Najdshi, p. 224; Tfisl, Rijal, pp. 126, 218, 530.24 AbM 'I-Faraj, p. 111; Aba Mikhnaf, p. 194.25 Aba Mikhnaf, p. 43, from isndds in TabarT.26 NajashT, p. 339; Aba Mikhnaf, p. 114, note 39.27 TUsT,Rijal, pp. 37, 50.28 Aba Mikhnaf, p. 195.



8 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104,1 (1984)

one of them through the intermediary of Abu Bakr b.

CAyyash.Ibn al-Sa'ib was a famous Shi'ite Koran-

commentator, genealogist, and geographer. He was

born before 66/685 and died in 146/763.29 His relia-

bility is often questioned by later biographers, most

likely because of his extremist Shicite views. He is

said, like Jabir al-Jucfi, to have believed in the ulti-

mate return of 'AlT to earth.30 He transmitted much,

but only one book, his TafsTr, s named by title in the

literature. Much of his material was passed on to his

son Hisham, who incorporated it into his many books.

Abu Bakr b. cAyyash was a famous traditionist

from whom many Kufans transmitted. He was notedfor his piety but occasionally made mistakes in his

hadith. He died in 193/809, more than 90 years of3 1

age.

D, 1. 1-2 as above, 3. Muhammad b. al-Sa'ib al-

KalbT,4. Muhammad b. cUmar b. 'AlT b. AbTTalib.'AlT died at the age of 62 and one-half years.

(f. 239b)

D, 2. 1-3, as above.

The doctor Ibn al-Athir al-KindT probes 'AlT's

wound with a rag, draws forth brain-matter, and

pronounces the wound fatal. (f. 235b)

D, 3. 1-2 as above, 3. Abu Bakr b. cAyyash, 4.

Muhammad b. al-Sa'ib al-KalbT. Three famous tra-

ditionists, Abi Husayn, cAsim b. Bahdala, and al-

Acmash, are asked about cAlT'sburial, but are unable

to answer. The question is then referred to Ibn al-

Sa'ib.)

CAlTwas buried outside Kufa by Hasan, Husayn,Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, and others of the family.

This was done so that the Kharijites or others would

not dig up the body. (f. 241a)Ibn al-Sa'ib's only informant given here, Muham-

mad b. cUmar b. CAlT . AbTTalib Abu 'Abdallah al-

HashimT,was one of the ashraf of Medina. His father

cUmar was the youngest of the sons of All, and

Muhammad lived into the reign of al-Saffah (132-136/749-754). His hadTthare transmitted in the four

Sunan (al-Nasa'T, Ibn Maja, Abui Dawud, and al-

DarimT), and are regarded as unobjectionable (ma

stunkira) and good (hasan).32

In the isnads of the three anecdotes which follow,the earliest common name is that of Hisham himself.

E, 1. 1-2 as above. 3. Abu Janab al-Kalbi Yahya b.

Hayya, 4. AbN 'Awn al-ThaqafT, 5. Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-SulamT.

A wasiyya directed by 'AlT to al-Hasan. (f. 237a)E, 2. 1-2 as above, 3. 'Umar b. 'Abd al-Rahman b.

Nufay' b. Ja'da b. Hubayra.

"When Ibn MuIjam wounded 'All, the latter steppedback and pushed Ja'da b. Hubayra from behind, andhe led the people in prayer. Then 'AlT ordered theman to be brought to him, and he asked Ibn Muljam,'Did I not treat you well, and do this and that (foryou)?' 'Yes, indeed.' 'Then what made you do this?'Ibn Muljam: 'I sharpened my sword forty days, then I

prayed to God that I might kill with it the worst of His

creatures.' 'Ali replied, 'I think that you will be killedwith it, and that you are the worst of His creatures.'Ibn Muljam was killed with his own sword." (f. 232b)

E, 3. 1-2 as above, 3. 'Awana b. al-Hakam.

"When the people returned from the morning prayerfrom the mosque of al-Ash'ath, where Hujr b. 'AdI

was their imam, after he has pronounced the salam,the people said that the Commander of the Faithful

had been wounded. Hujr looked at al-Ash'ath and

said, 'Did I not see Ibn Muljam with you and youwere talking to him secretly, and saying: The morninghas revealed you (Jfacddahaka-subh)? By God, if I

knew that for certain, I would strike your head (lit.:aktharaka sha'ran).' He replied, 'You are a doting oldman.' Al-Ash'ath sent his son Qays to him on the

morning 'AlT was wounded, saying, 'See how the

Commander of the Faithful is.' He went and looked,

then returned and said, 'I saw his eyes were sunken inhis head.' Al-Ash'ath said, 'The eyes of one woundedin the brain, by the Lord of the Ka'ba!"' (f. 234b)

Abu Janab Yahya b. Abli Hayya al-Kalbi was aKufan traditionist who was considered by the biog-raphersas truthful but weak and inclined to tadl/s. Hewas an important informant of Abul Mikhnaf, dyingin 147/764 or 150/767, less than a decade before hismore famous pupil.33

Abui'Awn Muhammad b. 'Ubaydallah b. Sa'cd al-A'war al-ThaqafTwas a Kufan transmitter,consideredmutqin and thiqa, who died during the governorshipof Khalid al-Qasri in Kufa (105-120/723-737).34

Abu 'Abd al-Rahman 'Abdallah b. Hab-b al-Sulami al-Thaqafi al-A'war was a Kufan Koran-reader who transmitted from 'Uthman and 'AlT. Hedied in 75/694.35

29GAS, i, 268.

30MTzdn, iii, 558.

"GAS, i, 10; TB, xiv, 371-385; Ibn Hibban, no. 1373.

2A7Mzen, iii, 668.

3 Ibid., iv, 37; Abiu Mikhnaf, p. 223; Marzubanli, 263.

34 Ibn Hibban, no. 830; Jarh, iv, 1, 1.

3 Ansdb, vii, 181 ult.; Ibn Hibbdn, no. 753.



BELLAMY: Jbn AbT 'I-Dunydfs Kitab Maqtal Amir al-Mu'minTn 'All 9

The third name in the isnad of E, 2 is interesting in

that it embodies what has been called a family isnad.Though it is only one name, we are obviously in-

tended to take the anecdote as having been trans-

mitted from father to son until it finally came toHisham. Ja'da b. Hubayra, who replaced 'AlT as

prayer-leader on the fatal morning, was the son of

'AlT's sister Umm Hani', and was married to his

daughter Umm al-Hasan. He served as governor ofKhurasan under 'AlT and died sometime during thereign of Mu'awiya.36 None of his descendants men-tioned in this isnad is found in the literature, though

several other sons are known.37

'Awdna b. al-Hakam al-KalbT before 90-147/709-

764) was a blind historian from Kufa, who is creditedwith a K. al-Tairlkh and a STratMu'dwiya wa-BanT

Umayya.38Though a member of the tribe of Kalb and

thus related to Hisham and a number of the latter'ssources, he does not appear in any of the Shicite

biographers. It is possible, however, that he was

favorably disposed towards the Shica since he trans-

mitted the above anecdote (without citing his source)in which an attempt is made to involve al-Ashcath b.

Qays al-Kindi in the assassination of AlT. Al-Ashcath

was blamed in the Shicite tradition for inducing 'AlT

to accept the arbitration at SiffTn, which was dis-astrous to his enterprise.39

II. AL-cABBAS B. HISHAM B. MUHAMMAD:

A SECOND ROUTE TO HISHAM

Although most of the akhbar that are cited on the

authority of Hisham b. Muhammad al-Kalbi werereceived by Ibn AbM 1-Dunyathrough the intermedi-ary of his father, there are four that go back toHisham by other turuq. Three of these were trans-mitted to the author by Hisham's son al-cAbbas,whose main purpose in life seems to have been thetransmission of his father's works. Ibn AbM1-Dunyafrequently transmits from him, and as far as I havebeen able to determine, only material from Hisham.40

A, 1. 1. Al-cAbbas b. Hisham b. Muhammad, 2.

Hisham b. Muhammad al-KalbT,3. Muhammad b. al-Sa'ib al-KalbT, 4. 'A'isha bt. 'Ubayd (i.e., Muham-

mad's mother).A physical description of 'AlT. (f. 240b)

A, 2. 1-2 as above, 3. Abfi '-Muqawwam Yahyd b.Tha'laba al-Ansari, 4. 'Abd al-Malik b. 'Umayr.

"When Ibn Muijam was brought in to 'All on themorning he was struck, his daughter Umm Kulthfimwas with him, weeping beside him. When she saw IbnMuijam she stopped and said, 'O enemy of God!There is nothing wrong with the Commander of theFaithful.' He replied, 'By God, I sharpened the swordand I rejected tyranny; I banished fear and I urgedspeed. I struck him a blow which, if it were on Rabi'aand Mudar, would destroy them (all). Are youweeping for me, then?"' (f. 235a)

A, 3. 1-2 as above, 3. Abi Bakr b. 'Ayyash.

"A group of Yemenis of Murad arrived, amongwhom was Ibn Muljam; when they stood before'Umar b. al-Khattab, he said: 'What tribe are youfrom?' 'From Murad,' they replied. He said, 'I havenever seen more unpleasant (ankar) faces than I havetoday-repeating it several times. Get out, and go toEgypt.' Among them was Saydan b. Hamdan, whostruck 'Uthman with his sword on the day his housewas invaded." (f. 243a)

Little can be said about Hisham's isnads here. Wehave already met his father and AbuiBakr b. 'Ayyash,see above, p. 8. Abu 'l-MuqawwamYahya b. Tha'labaal-AnsarT was considered weak by DaraqutnL.4' Abd

al-Malik b. 'Umayr, al-Lakhmi, a Kufan, is somewhatbetter known. He died at the end of the year 136/753at an advanced age. Although there are differences ofopinion about him, he is generally considered reli-able.42

III. ABO cALT AHMAD B. AL-HASAN AL-DARTR

(THE BLIND): A THIRD ROUTE TO HISHAM

Regarding the last khabar that Ibn Abi 'l-Dunyatakes from Hisham, the biographies do not serve uswell. Abu cAlTmay be the Ahmad b. al-Hasan b. cAlT

b. al-HusaynAbu

cAllal-Muqri' al-Khayyat, nick-named Dabis (or: Dubays), who is mentioned by al-

Khatlb al-Baghdadl.43He was a contemporary of IbnAbl 'l-Dunya, possibly somewhat older, but there is6 Ibn Hibbdn, no. 612; TilfS, Ri/dl, p. 37; Nasab Quraysh,

p. 334f.; Aba Mikhnaf, pp. 169f.3 Nasab Quraysh, p. 334f.38 GAS, i, 307.

39 See the article by H. Reckendorf, El , i, 696.40 See Ibn AbM I-Dunya, Mak7rim al-Akhldq index; TB,

xiv, 45.

4Mlzdn, iv, 367.

42 Ibid., ii, 660; Jarh, ii, 2, 360.

43 TB, iv, 88.




no mention of his being blind. His name, as given in

the isnad above, is confirmed by another khabar,reported by Ibn Abi Il-Dunya, in which he transmits a

death-bed address by 'All.44

A, 1. Abu'AlT

Ahmad b. al-Hasan al-Darir,2. Hisham b. Muhammad, 3. al-WalTd b. Wahb al-HarithT, 4. Br? (unpointed, third letter illegible) b.'Amr al-TamTmT.

After 'AlT'sdeath, a man of Tamim who had beenin charge of his bodyguard delivers a eulogy on him inthe mosque of Kufa. (f. 246b)

I have not been able to identify the two earlier menin the isnad.

IV. 'ABDALLAH B. YONUS B. BUKAYR:

ANOTHER ROUTE TO JABIR

Ibn Ab-i '-Dunya transmits eleven akhbar fromYunus b. Bukayr through the intermediaryof his soncAbdallah b. Yunus. The son is not known to the

biographers, and apparently his activity in hadith

scholarship was limited to transmitting the materialassembled by his father. The father, on the otherhand, is quite well known. He was Yunus b. Bukayrb. Wasil Abui Bakr al-Shaybani al-Hammal (d. 199/815), a Kufan scholar who, in addition to being atransmitter of hadTthand akhbar, served for a whileas qddaal-mazdlim under Jacfar b. Barmak. Opinionsvary as to his reliability, but for the most part he isregarded as trustworthy. He specialized in athar and

45siyar.

Of the eleven akhbar, five go back to Jabir al-Jucf!and hence probably formed part of his work on theassassination of WAlE

A, 1. cAbdallah b. Yunus b. Bukayr, 2. Yunus b.Bukayr, 3. Abu cAbdallahal-JucfT, 4. Jabir b. Yazid,5. Muhammad b. All.

Dying testimony of CAll directed to his son Hasan.(f. 236a)

A, 2. 1-4 as above, 5. Muhammad b. cAll, Zayd b.Thabit, Abu '1-Tufayl, and others.

CAlTwas wounded when 18 days had passed ofRamadan, and he died on the first night of the ten,that is, the last ten of Ramadan. (f. 239a)

A, 3. 1-4, as above, 5. Muhammad b. cAll andAbu '1-Tufayl.

Al-Hasan washed WAlI'sody and shrouded it witha shirt and two wrappers (liffatayn). He turned it

towards the qibla and supported it with seven bricks.

(f. 241b)

A, 4. 1-3 as above, 4. <Jabir>, 5. Abu '1-Tufayl.Hasan b. 'All prayed over 'AlT and buried him in

therahba.

(f. 241a)A, 5. 1-4 as above, 5. 'Amir al-Sha'bT.Khutba delivered by al-Hasan after the death of

'All. (f. 244a)

We have already met Abu 'Abdallah al-Ju'fl as thetransmitter of the akhbar that Hisham took over from

Jabir. Though he died four years after Yunus, who

transmitted from him, this should not cause us tosuspect the isnad, since Abu 'Abdallah's unusuallylong life was mentioned by his biographers, see above,

p. 6.Of Jabir's informants, Muhammad b. 'AlT has

already been dealt with, see above, p. 6. Zayd b.

Thabit al-AnsarTis famous as the secretary of theProphet Muhammad, who had much to do with the

Uthmanic recension of the Koran. He died about45/666.46 Abu 'l-Tufayl 'Amir b. Wathila al-Kinani

was a well-known poet. He belonged to the Kaysaniyya,a Shi'ite sect which believed in the immortality of

Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, and he fought on the

side of al-Mukhtar in Kufa. He lived to an advanced

age, dying in the year 107/725 which, if his claim of

having been born in the year of Uhud (3/625) is true,would put his age at over one hundred. He is said tohave been the oldest survivor in Mecca of those who

had seen the Prophet.47

'Amir al-Sha'bl (19-103/640-721) was famous as atraditionist, legal scholar, maghazi historian, andtransmitter of poetry.48

In the isnads of the remaining six akhbar whichcome from Ydnus b. Bukayr, he is himself the earliestcommon figure. With this group, furthermore, wetake leave of those professional historians who wrotemonographs on the assassination of 'AlT, and go on toscholars whose interests were of a different sort. Noneof the individuals mentioned hereafter, as far as wecan tell from the bibliographic sources, compiled awork on this subject. Most of them were ordinary

muhaddithdin mainly interested in the transmission ofhadTthand akhbar; we shall however, meet with otherfamous writers, such as Ibn Ishaq (sTra,maghdzT)andIbn Sa'd (biography).

44 Ibn Abl 'I-Dunya, Makdrim al-Akhldq, no. 39.

45 Ibn Sa'd, vi, 279; Jarh, iv, 2, 236; MTzan, iv, 477f.

46 GAS, i, 401f.

47 Ibid., ii, 412; Ibn Hibban, no. 214; Kishshl, p. 87; Ibn

Sa'd, vi, 42.48 GAS, i, 277 and index.



BELLAMY: Ibn Abr 'I-Dunyd'sKitab Maqtal Amir al-Mu'minln 'AlT 11

B, 1. 1-2 as above, 3. 'Ali b. Abl Fatima al-Ghanawi, 4. Shaykh min BanTHanzala.

Ibn al-Nabbah comes to 'All at dawn to announcethe prayer. 'AlT is in bed ill, and makes no reply; Ibn

al-Nabbah announces the prayer a second and thirdtime before 'AlTrises. He walks between Hasan and

Husayn, and recites two verses:

"Be resolute at death, for death will come to you;Do not be alarmed at death when it descends at

your abode."

When he reaches the little door, he sends them to

their places, whereupon 'Abd al-Rahman b. Muljamstrikes. 'AlI's daughter Umm KulthUm cries: "What isthe morning prayer to me? My husband, the Com-mander of the Faithful (i.e., 'Umar) was killed during

the morning prayer, and my father has been killedduring the morning prayer!" (f. 232a)

'Ali b. Hazawwar AbT Fatima al-Ghanawl was aShicite transmitter who lived in Kufa. Al-Dhahabi,who quotes several unfavorable opinions about him,mentions that Yunus transmitted from him.49I havenot identified the shaykh of the BanT Hanzala.

B, 2. 1-9 as above, 3. 'Abd al-Ghaffar b. al-Qasimal-Ansafr, 4. Ghayr wdhid.

"Ibn Muljam spent the night with al-Ash'ath b.Qays. In the pre-dawn he said to him 'It's morning.'Hujr was a mawla of theirs; he went out and gave thecall to prayer, and no sooner had he heard the tumult

than he cried out from atop the minbar, 'The one-eyed man has killed (him)!' for he (al-Ash'ath) wasone-eyed. 'AlTused to call him 'urf al-ndr." (f. 234b)

'Abd al-Ghaffar b. al-Qasim b. Qays b. Fahd AbuMaryam al-Ansari was a Kufan scholar, a prominentShi'ite, who was called by some a Rdfidl. Scholarscommonly reject his hadTth, some of which weredistressing stories (baldyd) about 'Uthman. He sur-vived down to around the decade of the 160s.5?

B, 3. 1-2 as above, 3. Muhammad b. Rabl 'a,4. Nafi' b. 'Uqba (or 'Utba) al-MnhbT (sic; not inAnsab).

"I left my family in the pre-dawn and came to thedoor of the mosque, the door of Kinda, when sud-denly a man ran out brandishing his sword. I threwmy taylasan in his face, seized him and wrested thesword from his hand. Then I led him as one leads acamel and brought him into the mosque, where I

heard the commotion and the people saying 'TheCommander of the Faithful has been killed.' I broughthim in and said, 'This is he. I caught him coming outof the mosque brandishing his sword.' He was taken

in to 'AlT,who said, 'Hold him, and if I die of thiswound of mine, he is in your hands, a life for a life;kill him. If I live and recover, I will decide abouthim."' (f. 234b)

Muhammad b. Rabica may be the Muhammad b.Rab-'a al-KilabT, who was a contemporary of al-A'mash (d. 147/764 or 148/765). There are differingopinions on his credibility, from la ba's bihi to

kadhdhdb.5 I have not identified Nafic; the text,however, may be corrupt at this point.

B, 4. 1-2 as above, 3. Abli Ishaq al-Mukhtar al-

Taymi, 4. Abi '1-Matar."When Ibn Muljam struck 'All, the edge of the

sword fell on the head of 'All and the middle of thesword fell on the door. 'AlI said, 'Seize the man, andif I die, kill him, and if I live, wounds are subject toretaliation."' (f. 235a)

Abg Ishaq al-Mukhtar b. Nafic al-TaymT al-

Tammar was a Kufan scholar of poor repute. Ibn AbTHatim states that Yunus transmitted from him.52

Abfi '1-Matar al-Juhani al-Basrl is known only asan intermediary between 'All and al-Mukhtar al-

Taymi, information possibly drawn from this veryanecdote. Abfi Hatim says that he is majhal layu crafu53

B, 5. 1-2 as above, 3. Aban al-Bajall, 4. Abu Bakr

b. Hafs, 5. Ibn cAbbas."I heard Ali in Kufa when they came to him and

asked, 'O Commander of the Faithful, what do yousay concerning this prisoner?' He replied, 'I think youshould take good care of him until you see whatcondition I am in. If I die, do not let him linger anhour after me."' (f. 235b)

Aban b. AbTHazim cAbdallahal-Bajali is generallyconsidered trustworthy. He died in the reign of al-Ma'mun (d. 218/833). Al-Dhahabl relates a khabarfrom him from Abu Bakr b. Hafs as above.54 Hisinformant Abii Bakr b. Hafs b. cUmar b. Sacidb. Ab! Waqqas was a reliable Kufan scholar.55 IbncAbbas is the famous Koran-commentator,transmitterof hadTth, and ancestor of the Abbasid caliphs.

49 Mlzan, iii, 118.50 Jarh, iii, 1, 53f.; M-zan, ii, 640.

5MTzan, iii, 545.

52 Jarh, iv, 1, 310; M-zdn, iv, 80.53 Jarh, iv, 2, 445; M-zan, iv, 574.54 Mzan, i, 9.55 Jarh, iv, 2, 338.




B, 6. 1-2 as above, 3. 'Ubayd b. 'Utayba, 4. Wahbb. 'Abdalldh b. Ka'b b. SUr.

Ibn al-HIanafiyya goes into a bath and meets IbnMuIjam there. He questions him about his identity,but Ibn MuIjam refuses to tell him anything exceptthat he is from the Yemen. Later, after the assassina-tion, he remembers Ibn MuIjam from the bath, andtells his friends that he could not know the unseen but

that he knew that something was amiss. (f. 243a)Our sources give us only enough information about

the two earliest men in the above isnad for us to readtheir names correctly and verify the relationship be-tween them. Wahb b. 'Abdalldh b. Ka'b b. SUr al-Azdi transmitted from Salman al-Farisli, and 'Ubaydb. 'Utayba al-'AbdT transmitted from Wahb.56

V. SACTD B. YAHYA B. SAcTD

Ibn Abl 'l-Dunyd includes in this work eleven anec-dotes which he received from Sacid b. Yahya. Nine of

these go back to Ziyad al-Bakkd'! through the inter-

mediary of Sacid's uncle 'Abdallah.Sacid b. Yahya b. Sacid b. Aban b. Sacid b. al-cAs

al-Qurashi al-Umawl Abu CUthman, the scion of afamous house, was a well-known transmitter of hadithand akhbar who lived in Baghdad. He is generallyconsidered trustworthy, by some more so than hisfather, though he sometimes made mistakes. He trans-mitted from such famous men as CAbdallahb. al-Mubdrak, Abu Bakr b. CAyyash,and others. He died

in 249/863."7Sacid's uncle, from whom he received these akhbar,

was 'Abdallah b. Sacid b. Aban b. Sacid b. al-cAs

Abu Muhammad al-Qurashi al-Umawi (d. after 203/819). He was originally from Kufa, but settled inBaghdad, where he was considered a trustworthytransmitter and a scrupulous scholar in grammar andlexicography. He was, however, not so well known ashis brother, the father of Sacid,58 see below.

Ziyad b. CAbdallahb. al-Tufayl Abu Muhammadal-Bakkd'!, from whose collection these akhbar ulti-mately derive, was a Kufan scholar, who is mostfamous for having transmitted Ibn Ishaq's K. al-

Maghdzr from the author. He is held to be the mostaccurate transmitter from Ibn Ishaq, superior toYunus b. Bukayr. The story is told that he even soldhis house in order to travel about with Ibn Ishaq, at

whose dictation he twice copied the Maghdz7. Forother hadTth and akhbdr his reputation is not sogood. He died in the year 183/799.'9

A, 1. 1. Sa'Td b. Yahyd al-Umawi, 2. 'Abdallah b.Sa'Td,3. Ziydd b. 'Abdallah, 4. 'Awana b. al-Hakam.

A brief account of the conspiracy to kill 'All,Mu'dwiya, and 'Amr b. al-'As. (The third name isomitted from the MS probably by a homoioteleuton

error.) The betrothal of Qatdmi with Ibn Muljam.(f. 233a)

A, 2. 1-4 as above.A brief account of the assault. Qatdmi urges Ibn

Muljam to keep his bargain. He strikes 'All and

throws down his sword, warning the people that it ispoisoned. He is seized and 'All enters his house.

(f. 233b)

A, 3. 1-4 as above, Muzdhim b. Zufar al-Taymi,

6. WajTh, .e., a person of note.Ibn Muljam criticizes the funeral procession of

Abjar b. Hajjdr al-'Ijll because both Christians andMuslims were accompanying it. He declines to take

any action since he has reserved himself for an actionwhich will bring a great reward. (f. 233b)

Of Ziydd's sources we have already encountered

'Awana, see above, p. 9. Little is known of Muzahimb. Zufar al-Dabbl.60 He is regarded as trustworthy,and transmitted from al-Sha'bl and Mujahid, both ofwhom died in 102/720 or 103/721. Muzahim probablydied late in the first or early in the second quarter ofthe second century.6' I have not been able to identify

the wajTh.B, 1. 1-3 as above, 4. al-Mujalid (MS thus with

article) b. Sa'Id.Ibn Bujra al-Ashjd'l and Ibn Muljam bring their

swords and sit at the door. When 'All comes out theyattack him; one of them misses and hits the wall, theother strikes home. They both run out fleeing, IbnBujra to the Kinda side and Ibn Muljam to themarket side. The latter is caught, taken prisoner, andbrought to 'All, who says, "Hold him." (f. 233a)

B, 2. 1-4 as above.Al-Kindl, who was a physician, was summoned to

'All. He asked for a lung, took a thin strip from it

with the duct still attached, and blew it up. He insertedthis into the wound and then withdrew it, findingon it apart of 'Alls brain. He said, "Make your will, 0

56 Ikmdl, iv, 392.

57 TB, ix, 90.58 Ibid., p. 470f.

59 Ibid., viii, 476.60 Taym al-Lat was a branch of Dabba, see CU. R. Kahhala,

Muciam Qabd'il al-'Arab, Damascus, 1368/1949, i, 137.61 Jarh, iv, 1, 405.



BELLAMY: Ibn Abi 'I-Dunya's Kitdb Maqtal Amlr al-Mu'minin 'All 13

Commander of the Faithful, for one such as youcannot be treated." Thereupon 'All said, "If I die kill

him, for that is a life for a life. If I live, I will decide."

(f. 236a)

B, 3. 1-4 as above, 5. al-Sha'bT,6. Zahr b. Qays al-Ju'fT.

Mujalid first states without citing his authority that

'All died without appointing a successor, then on the

authority of the above isndd, gives a version of the

announcement of cAll's assassination in al-Madd'in,

in which Zahr is already there and receives word from

a man who is not named, see above, p. 6. (f. 244a)The new man in the isnad is Mujalid b. Sa'Id b.

cUmayr AbU cUmayr al-HamdanT, a weak Kufan

transmitter, who died in 144/762. He was mainly a

rdwl of akhbdr and sira, and had a tendency to trace

back to the Prophet traditions which most people did

not. In general, he is not strongly condemned.62 Foral-Sha'bT and Zahr, see above, pp. 10 and 6.

C, 1. 1-3 as above, 4. Muhammad b. Ishaq."Ibn Muijam al-Muradd came from Syria and

struck 'All. Umm Kulthim bt. cAll said to Ibn

Muljam, 'O enemy of God, you have killed the Com-

mander of the Faithful.' He replied, 'I have killed only

your father.' She said, 'By God, I hope that he has

suffered no harm.' He said, 'Are you weeping for me

then?' Then he said to her, 'By God, I poisoned it for

a month, and if it has betrayed me, God curse and

damn it!"' (f. 235a)C, 2. 1-4 as above, 5. Zayd b. cAbdalldhb. Sacd,

6. 'Ubaydallah b. Abi Rafi'.An account of the tortures inflicted on Ibn Muljam.

(f. 242a)Muhammad b. Ishaq (85-150/704-767) is the

famous biographer of the Prophet and author ofother historical works.63The two akhbar cited here

are probably from his Ta'rdkh al-Khulaff', a frag-ment of which has survived in a contemporary

papyrus.64

I have not been able to identify Ibn Ishaq's infor-

mant Zayd; 'Ubaydallah b. AbliRafic, however, was amawla of CAlT,who served as his secretary. Accordingto T.sT, he transmitted a book of legal opinions

(qaddyd) of CAll and compiled a list of names(tasmiya) of the Sahaba who were present with cAll at

the Battle of the Camel, Siffin, and Nahrawan.5D, 1. 1-3 as above, 4. IsmcIlI b. AbT Khalid,

5. AbU Ishdq Hubayra b. Yarim.

A khutba delivered by al-Hasan after the death of

All. (f. 244a)IsmacTlb. Sacd AbT Khdlid al-KiifT al-BajalT al-

Ahmasli (d. 146/763) was a highly regarded trans-mitter, whose name occurs in several other isndds inthis work.66Hubayrab. Yarimal-Shaybani of Hamdanis practically unknown (shablh biPl-majhi!l);only AbUIshdq and one other muhaddith transmitted fromhim. He was a supporter of al-Mukhtar.67

AbQIshaq al-Sablc' cAmr b. cAbdallah al-HamddnT(29-127/650-745) was a famous scholar and one ofthe leading tabiciin in Kufa. There is some discussionas to whether he became senile (ikhtalata) in his old

age, or merely forgetful. One authority states that the

hadith of the people of Kufa were quite corrupt68except for his and those of al-Acmash.' His name is

found in several other isnads in this work.The two remaining akhbar that Ibn AbM l-Dunya

received from Sacid b. Yahya were taken by the latter,not from his uncle as those above, but from his father,Yahya b. Sacid Abu Ayyub al-QurashTal-UmawT,who like his brother, was a native of Kufa, but settledin Baghdad. He is noted for having transmitted IbnIshaq's K. al-MaghdzT rom the author. There is somedoubt as to his reliability as a transmitter of hadith,which seems to be based on the belief that hadithwere really not his metier. "He was truthful, but not

really a hadith scholar" (kdna saduqan wa-laysa bi-sdhibi hadTth). He died in 194/810, having attained

69the age of 80 (74 according to another source).

E, 1. 1 as above, 2. Yahya b. Sacid, 3. Muhammadb. Ishaq.

CAlTwas wounded on 19 Ramadan of the year 40;he died 21 Ramadan.

E, 2. 1-2 as above.Three verses by cImran b. Hittan al-Sadiisi.

The last two sources of Ibn Abli 'l-Dunya that weshall examine are especially interesting because theyare the only ones for which the prior written textshave survived. They will thus provide us with a fewbrief examples of how the compiler used his immedi-ate sources.

62 Ibn Sacd, vi, 243; M-zdn, iii, 438f.; Jarh, iv, 2, 361f.;

Fihrist, p. 90.63 GAS, i, 288ff.64 Published by N. Abbott, Studies in Arabic Papyri, I.

Historical Texts, Chicago, 1957, pp. 80ff.

65 TUsiX ihrist, p. 133; Ibn Sa'd, v, 208.66 Ibid., vi, 240; Jarh, i, 1, 174.67 Ibn Sa'd, vii, 188; Mtzdn, iv, 293.68

Ibn Hibban, no. 847; Jarh, i, 2, 242; Mizan, iii, 270.69 TB, xiv, 132ff.




VI. MUHAMMAD B. SACD

Ibn Sacd (168-230/784-845) is the well-known

biographer who produced the fundamental biographi-

cal work Kitdb al- Tabaqdt al-KabTr. bn Abi 'l-Dunya,

who was only about 22 years old when his master

died, seems to have transmitted the whole of the

Tabaqdt. Al-Khat~ib al-Baghddl frequently cites thework70-as usual without giving the title-with the

isndd: 1. 'All b. Muhammad b. Bushrdnal-Mu'addal,71

2. al-Husayn b. Safwan al-BardhacT,72 . Ibn Abi '1-

Dunya, 4. Muhammad b. Sacd. The work is listed

among those that al-Khat-b brought with him to

Damascus.73Ibn Sa'd's source for the three anecdotes that follow

is Muhammad b. 'Umar al-Wdqid! al-AslamT, the

author of the MaghdzT nd Futuh (I130-207/747-823).

He was also the compiler of an early !abaqdt-work,which doubtless served as a model for Ibn Sa'd,74and

is probably the ultimate source of the citations given

here.A, 1. 1. Muhammad b. Sa'd, 2. Muhammad

b. 'Umar, 3. AlT b. cUmar b. cAll b. H.usayn,

4. 'Abdallah b. Muhammad b. CAqil, 5. Muhammad

b. al-Hanafiyya."I (i.e., 'Abdallah) said to Muhammad b. al-Hana-

fiyya: How old was your father when he was killed?He said: Sixty-three." (f. 239b)

A, 2. 1-5 as above."I (i.e., 'Abdallah) heard Muhammad b. al-Hana-

fiyya say in the year of the flood (al-Juhaf) when theyear 81 had begun: Here I am sixty-six (sic)75 years

old; I have passed the age of my father. I said: Howold was your father the day he was killed? He said:

Sixty-three. AbU 'l-Qasim Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya

died during that year." (f. 247b)Little is known of 'All b. 'Umar b. 'All b. Husayn

b. CAllb. Abl Thlib. TUsT1ists him among the com-panions of Jacfar al-Sadiq, and there is a brief note

on him given by Ibn Abi Hatim. It is not statedwhether he is reliable or not.76

His informant cAbdallahb. Muhammad b. cAqll b.AbYTalib is considered honest but weak, with a poor

77memory.

B, 1. 1-2 as above, 3. AbU Bakr b. cAbdallah,4. Ishdq b. cAbdallah, 5. Abi Jacfar.

"I (i.e., Ishaq) said to AbU Jacfar: Where was CAll

buried? He said: In Kufa by night, and (the place of)his burial is hidden (ghabiya or ghubbiya dafnuhu)."(f. 241a)

Abu Bakr b. cAbdallah b. Abi Sabra al-Madani

(d. 162/779) was an important informant of al-Wdqidl. He is almost universally condemned by thebiographers as weak, an inventor of hadith; his hadTthare matrik.78

His informant Ishaq b. cAbdallah b. Abli Farwa al-Madanl is likewise universally rejected. He died in144/761.79For Abu Jacfar, see above, p. 6.

Ibn Abl 'l-Dunya takes certain small liberties inciting the first two passages (A, 1 and A, 2), which heputs together from similar but not identical akhbar inthe Tabaqdt. The isnads differ in one point: Ibn Sacd,iii, 1, 25 notes that Wdqidi received the informationfrom cAll b. cUmar and Abiu Bakr b. Abi Sabra, both

of whom took it from Ibn cAqil. Ibn Abli 'l-Dunyadrops the name of Ibn AbliSabra, possibly because ofhis bad reputation among hadlth scholars, but has tokeep him in B, 2 since he is the only transmitter in thisslot.

The texts are as follows: Samictu Muhammada bnal-Hanafiyyati yaqulu sanata l-juhafi hina dakhalatihda wa-thamaniina: Hadhihi 11khamsun wa-sittiunasanatan wa-qad jawaztu sinna abli. Qultu: wa-kamkanat sinnuhu yawma qutila?-yarhamuhu llahu.Qala: thalathan wa-sittina sanatan. Qala Muhammadubnu cUmar: wa-huwa athbatu cindana. (Ibn Sacd,iii, 1, 25)

'? E.g., TB, i, 135, 136 bis, 140, 143 bis, 144, 145 bis,

149 bis, 152, 156, 158, 161 et passim.71 Lubdb, iii, 157; born Ramadan 328/June 940, died

Sha'ban 415/October 1024.12 TB, viii, 54; died in Sha'ban 340/January 952, well-

known as a transmitter from Ibn AbN 'l-Dunya.

'3 Tasmivatmd warada bihi 'IKhatTb l-BaghdddTDimashq

... ed. by YUsuf al-'Ushsh, in al-Khatlb al-Baghddi-,

Dimashq, 1945/1364, p. 109.74 GAS, i, 294.75 This must be set down as an error peculiar to the

tradition of this MS of Ibn Abi 'l-Dunyd's work; the source

(Ibn Sa'd, iii, 1, 25) reads 'sixty-five,' as does al-Khatib, TB,

i, 136, who quotes the passage with his usual isnad through

Ibn AbT 'I-Dunyd as given above.

76Tilsi, Rijdl, p. 241; Jarh, iii, 1, 196.

77Mzdn, ii, 484.

78 Muhammad b. 'Umar al-Waqidi, K. al-Maghdzf, ed.

Marsden Jones, London, 1966, p. 1, and index; M-zdn, iv,

503f.79 M-zdn, 1, 193.



BELLAMY: Ibn Abf 'I-Dunyd's Kitdb Maqtal Amir al-Mu'minin 'AlT 15

Sami'tu Muhammada bna l-Hanafiyyati sanataihdd wa-thamdnTnayaqUlu: Hadhihi ITkhamsun wa-sittuna sanatan, qad jdwaztu sinna abl, tuwuffiya wa-huwa bnu thaldthin wa-sittina sanatan. Wa-mqta bnu

'1-Hanafiyyati f! tilka '1-sanati, sanati ihdd wa-thamdnTna. (Ibn Sa'd, v, 65)Ibn Abli 'l-Dunyd's first citation (A, I above) is a

brief excerpt from the first of these two passages inwhich, however, he has to change sinnuhu to sinnu

abika, in order to make the sense clear since he is

omitting the antecedent of the pronoun. The second

citation (A, 2) is likewise lifted from the longer pas-sage, but the statement about the death of Muhammadb. al-Hanafiyya is taken from the shorter passage andis abbreviated by dropping the repetition of the year. 1have not been able to find B, 1 in the Tabaqdtof Ibn

Sa'd. It may have fallen out by accident in the later

tradition of that work.

VII. AL-ZUBAYR B. BAKKAR

Al-Zubayr b. AbT Bakr Bakkar b. 'AlT(172-256/788-870)8o was the author of a famous work on thegenealogy of Quraysh entitled K. Nasab Quraysh wa-

Akhbariha, the latter part of which was published byM. M. Shakir, Cairo, 1381. This work is obviouslythe main source of the last section of Ibn AbT '1-Dunya's work (ff. 247a-249a), in which he records thenames of the children of 'AlTand traces some of theirdescendants. In citing this lengthy passage from

Zubayr, Ibn AbT'l-Dunya follows the practice, notedbefore, of interruptingthe quotation here and there toadd additional bits of pertinent information fromother sources, the isnads of which are given, and thenreturningto the main text. One of these additions hasbeen discussed above under V, A, 1.

Ibn Abi 'l-Dunya begins with the following isnad:Qala Zubayru bnu AbTBakrinft ma ajaza ITwa-qala:irwihi 'annT f. 247a). Ibn AbT l-Dunya seldom trans-mits by ijaza. This is the only example in his MaqtalAmTral-Mu'minTn 'AlT, and I have found only rareinstances in his other works. Here we can be certainthat Ibn AbT'l-Dunya has his own copy of Zubayr'swork, since the use of qala at the beginning of anisnad, rather than the usual akhbaranT/na orhaddathanT/nd, indicates that the citation was takenfrom a written text, but was not audited with theauthor or transmitter. Ibn Abl 'l-Dunya, with hisusual scrupulousness, is careful to state his claim to

the right to transmit the work not only by telling ushe has an ijaza from Zubayr but also by quoting theauthor's very words in granting it.

Unfortunately we are not able to compare Ibn Abl

'l-Dunyd's citation with the original since the extantportion of Zubayr'swork does not contain the sectionon the descendants of All. This lack, however, can toa considerable extent be made good by reference toanother similar work, the K. Nasab Quraysh, byZubayr's uncle, Mus'ab b. 'Abdallah al-ZubayrT ca.

156-233/ca. 733-848).81 Zubayr is known to have

transmitted much material from his uncle, and acomparison of Ibn Abl 'l-Dunyd's quotation fromZubayr with the text of Mus'ab permits us to con-clude that the uncle's book was the main source forthe nephew's, at least for the section on cAlITs escen-dants. The texts are to a great extent identical: the

order in which the names of 'All's children are pre-sented is the same, and the main differencesconsist of

a few omissions from Ibn AbT'l-Dunya's (Zubayr's)account of a number of verses and a small amount ofanecdotal material which appear in Mus'ab's text.The most important of these omissions are the follow-ing: the brief account of al-Hasan's funeral (f. 247a;Nasab Quraysh, p. 40); the rajaz-versesby 'Ubaydallahb. Ziyad, and the mardthT n Husayn by Sulayman b.Qatta and al-NajashT f. 247a; Nasab Quraysh, pp. 40-41); the statement that the Shicites call Muhammadb. al-Hanafiyya the Mahdi, and the verses byKuthayyir (f. 247b; Nasab Quraysh, pp. 41-42); the

account of the death of 'Ubaydallah b. 'AlT(f. 248a;Nasab Quraysh, p. 44). The only real discrepancythatI have found between the two texts occurs in the dateof Hasan's death, where in Mus'ab, p. 40 we find ii-khamsi laydlin khalawna, and in Ibn Abi 'l-Dunya(Zubayr), f. 247a, li-thalathinkhalawna. Beyond these,the only differences are trivial; for example, theexpansion or abbreviation of names, occasional shiftsin the word order, and so forth, such as one wouldexpect from a scholar who follows very closely, butdoes not slavishly copy his original source.

The first thing that strikes one on examining IbnAbY'l-Dunya's rather short monograph is the largenumber of immediate transmitters on which he wasable to draw-45 in all-a number which, however,declines as we go back through the isnads to find the

80GAS, i, 317.

81Ibid., p. 271.




original written sources, only to expand somewhat aswe pass on to the earliest informants and transmitters.The constriction is greatest when our earliest written

source was-composed by a professional historian, andconsiderably less when the transmitters were ordinarymuhaddithin. The unique isnads-which make upmore than half the total in the work-are importantin this regard, since they are mostly of the latter sort,

and together with the others of their kind, show that,as far as quantity is concerned, the compiler hadavailable more material on this subject from the

muhaddithiin than from the historians. One is sur-

prised to find only 21 akhbar (by three turuq) from

Hisham, who had been a personal acquaintance ofIbn AbMl-Dunya's father; only ten from Jabir (five of

them through Hisham), and three from AbN Mikhnaf

(all through Hisham). It is clear from the different

turuq that Ibn Abli 'l-Dunya did not own the worksby Jdbir and AbN Mikhnaf, since if he had possessedhis own copies, they would have come to him each by

only one route, and the isnads from each would be

identical. There is doubt even that he used a copy of

Hisham.

Even if we allow that Ibn AbT l-Dunya had his own

copy of Hisham's work, we cannot conclude that it

contained only 21 anecdotes. It is clear that thepractice of excerpting (intikhab or intiqd') has been atwork here. In the case of Hisham's book, the excerpt-ing was probably done by Ibn AbM l-Dunya's father,less likely by himself; for the others, by someone in

the isnads later than the authors but before Ibn Abl '1-Dunya, probably by Hisham, where he is the laterauthority. The earlier works may, indeed, have al-ready gone out of existence by Ibn AbT 'l-Dunya'stime, or, if they were still extant, he may not haveknown of their existence. One of the advantages ofSezgin's method of isnad-analysis is that it may allowus to be better informed about a writer's ultimatesources than he was himself.

It is curious, to say the least, that the practice of

excerpting should have taken such a toll of the his-

torians' works. This is true not only of those men-tioned specifically here, but it is also true of the other

works by the same writers,and those of other authors,such as al-Mada'inl, most of whose large productionhas not survived. One cannot ascribe this extensiveloss simply to the fact that these early works were somuch quoted by later historians, such as TabarT, hatinterest in them declined to such an extent that theywere lost. The early works were much shorter, andtherefore much cheaper, than massive compilationssuch as TabarT's history, so one would expect that

anyone interested in the subject matter would con-tinue to make efforts to acquire the shorter andcheaper books and thus keep them in production. Isuspect that the real reason for the loss must berelated in some way to the great advance in hadTth-study that took place in the late second and earlythird centuries, and which tended to overwhelm otherapproaches to scholarship. It may be that consider-able portions of these early works did not come up tothe standards demanded by later generations ofmuhaddithin, and that in excerpting them they win-nowed out the grain that they possessed, and sodeprived later historians of much interesting chaff.

A modern historian, setting out to write an accountof the assassination of 'AlTwould make every effort toassemble all the available sources. In a sense, Ibn AbM'l-Dunya did the same, but his sources were all con-

tained in the material he had received from hissheikhs. His selection of material had already been toa great extent pre-empted by decisions on what totransmit that had been made by generations ofscholars before him. Still he was free to make his ownselection from the data he had in his notebooks. Wecannot say with certainty that he included in thiswork every scrap of pertinent information that he hadpreviously recorded, but this inclusion of so manyanecdotes transmitted by men of questionable charac-ter indicates that he came close to doing so.

The ease with which Ibn AbT 'l-Dunya includesmaterial of dubious origin, coupled with his care in

citing isnads, tells us something about his attitude tohis profession. We would as a rule think that con-demnation of a transmitter by respected experts injarh and ta'drl would be enough to induce a compilerof a work such as this to exclude the transmitter'sakhbar. But obviously Ibn AbMl-Dunya was not sopersuaded, which means he must have had goodreasons for ignoring the criticism that was levelledagainst so many of the men who appeared in hisisnads. Two questions immediately arise. First of all,why did he not take the criticism seriously? Andsecondly, since he did not, why did he not omit theisnads altogether-as was done so often in lateranthologies-and so save space and produce a bookmuch easier to read?

Answering the second question first, I believe thathe included the isnads simply because of the prevail-ing academic fashion of his time-which is not reallya simple answer at all. Isnads were a fundamentalelement in hadTthscholarship and an integral part ofthe individual hadith-two separate functions whichshould not be confused. By Ibn AbT'l-Dunya's time



BELLAMY: Ibn Abr 'I-Dunyd'sKitab Maqtal AmIr al-Mu'minin 'Ali 17

the text and isndd had become so closely connected

that it was virtually impossible to separate them.

Historians and later anthologizers might curtail the

isnads, but not the true muhaddith, and Ibn Abi '1-

Dunya by including them shows us that he consideredhimself a muhaddith. The fact that several of his

compilations dealt with historical incidents did not

alter this conception of his professional function and

the proper way of filling it. I have found in my own

study of hadTthand akhbar that after reading some

thousands of them, the isnad becomes necessary for

a complete appreciation of the texts. Akhbdr with-

out isnads take on a lopped and stunted appearance

which detracts greatly from the effect they have. The

effect of the isnad comes close to being ritualistic;each

text is set off almost as if it were a bit of sacred

scripture, retaining in isolation a distinctive aura that

is lost as soon as it merges with others of its kind. I donot doubt that the majority of the muhaddithun in the

Middle Ages experienced the same feeling, but much

more intensely than I, when they read hadTth,and

especially when they heard them recited aloud. It is

not necessary for an isnad to be sound to have this

effect, but it must be there.

The other function of the isnad, that is, its use in

the scholarly evaluation of a text based on the relia-

bility of the transmitters, demanded an expertise that

was the property of only a few specialists. Ibn AbT '1-

Dunya was clearly not much affected by the passion

for soundness which inspired the work of his great

contemporaries, BukharT nd Muslim. The survival inthis work-as well as in others-of so many akhbar

with unsound isnads is itself proof enough that some

factor other than soundness was more important in

deciding whether a given text would continue to be

transmitted.This factor, of course, can only be the content-

which answers the first question raised above. If the

content of a particularkhabar was attractive, interest-

ing, or useful, and it was not available with an

impeccable isnad, it would be transmittedby someone

regardless of the condition of the isnad. Ibn AbM 1-

Dunya, it seems clear, ignored the criticism because totake it seriously would have forced him to omit

material that was pertinent to his subject. Although

he was not a Shicite, he was obliged to relate someinformation based on the Shicite historians, who seem

to have monopolized the real "historical" treatment of

'AlT'sdeath, or to produce a work that would have

failed to include some important aspects of the sub-

ject. He probably, however, did not agonize muchover this decision. His relations with his teachers

would have been, after the content, the paramountfactor in his decision on what to include. His respectfor his father, in particular, would have outweighedby far any misgivings he might have had as to the

reliability of Hisham, Abu Mikhnaf and Jabir.There is one curious feature of Ibn AbT'l-Dunya'sprocess of selection that must be examined in some-

what greater detail-the rarity of citations from Ibn

Sa'd's Tabaqdt. We mentioned before that he trans-mitted the whole of the Tabaqdt, and that he was only22 years old when Ibn Sa'd died. He thereforealreadyhad the work in his repertoire while still quite young,probably long before he compiled the work on the

death of cAll. It must have been a deliberate decisionon his part to include only three not very importantcitations from this work, which could have served asone of his major sources.

I suspect that one reason for his excluding Ibn Sa'dwas that he was already professionally engaged in the

transmission of the Tabaqdt,and that he preferredtomake his own compilation of anecdotes from sourcesthat the earlier writer had ignored; in other words,that he conceived of his work as a sort of complementto what Ibn Sa'd had already recorded in his famouscollection of biographies. Another factor may, how-

ever, have contributed to this decision. We notedabove that Ibn Abi 'l-Dunya scrupulously cites his

akhbar with their separate isnads, and does not com-bine the text into a running narrative. This is hisregular practice in all his works. Ibn Sa'd, on the

other hand, does take this historian's shortcut. In hisbiography of 'AlThe records a lengthy account of the

assassination, beginning with the conspiracy and end-ing with the preparation of the Caliph's body for

burial, which takes up almost two pages in the printed82

text. The account is introduced simply by qdlh withno isnad, and is nothing more than a patchwork offragments culled from many akhbar, most of whichcan be found unaltered in Ibn AbT'l-Dunya's workand other accounts of the incident. Ibn Abi 'l-Dunyacould hardly have made extensive use of Ibn Sa'dwithout including this passage, which would clearly

have violated the principles that he had adopted forthe compilation of his own works.When Ibn Abi 'l-Dunyd embarked on his career as

a muhaddith, a muhaddith, moreover, who proposedto recast the material he received from his sheikhs inmusannaf-form, he entered a profession that demandedcomplete dedication and an extraordinary amount of

82 Ibn Sacd, iii, 1, 23-25.




stamina. It is difficult for us, after the lapse of more

than a thousand years, and with only the finishedworks in our hand, to appreciate how much sheer

labor went into the compilation of even a short work

of this kind. A few hints on the process of compila-

tion may, however, be gleaned from this and his other

works. The 45 authorities whom Ibn Abl 'l-Dunyd

transmits in his Maqtal 'AlT are only about a tenth of

the total number of his sheikhs, from each of whom

he had to copy-or have copied for him-as many

hadTth and akhbar as he desired, or as many as the

individual sheikhs would permit him to take. Then he

had to audit them in reading sessions that were not in

the least casual off-hand affairs, but were formal,

well-organized meetings with prescribed rules of pro-

cedures that were accepted by all in the profession.The result of this activity, which must have lasted

for many years, was a collection of notebooks, eachone of which resembled a musnad, containing the

material received from a single transmitter. In addi-

tion, Ibn Abl 'l-Dunyd must have had his own copy-

made in the same way-of Ibn Sa'd's Tabaqdt, as well

as copies of any other titled works that he transmitted

Cala wajhiha.Then came the process of tasnWf.When the author

fixed on a particular subject, he could not turn to

indexes or concordances to help him make his selec-

tion; he had to go through all his material and copy

out the pertinent anecdotes (probably each on a

separate slip of paper), then arrange them in some

sort of order, under different chapter headings ifappropriate, and finally write out a clean copy. Then

finally he would send it to his publisher or allow it to

be copied by his students.

How laborious this process was is illustrated by the

two rather unimportant items of information fromIbn Sa'd cited under VI, A, I and 2 above. These areseparated by nearly 800 pages in the printed text. IbnAbT 'l-Dunya could not have had the Tabaqdt byheart; he must have reread the whole work again inhis search for pertinent data, and he must have donethe same with all his usal. Even if we allow that he

compiled a number of musannafdt simultaneously,and had the help of a secretary, the necessary labor isnot much reduced, since the selection was his alone to

make. Ibn AbM l-Dunyd compiled more than 180monographs, many of them much longer than his

Maqtal AmTral-Mu'minTn 'All, so it is easy to seehow his whole lifetime could be devoted to this single

activity.Ibn AbT'l-Dunyd's Maqtal AmTral-Muu'minTnAlT

is a rare survival of a type of work that was not muchcultivated by Muslim scholars in the Middle Ages-awork on a historical topic compiled, not by a pro-fessional historian, but by a muhaddith, a transmitterof hadith and akhbdr. Discrepancies in his account,the problems raised by them, and general questions of

source evaluation did not concern him in the least. Itwas enough for him to set down his anecdotes in themanner prescribed by his profession, each unalteredwith its own isnad, and arrange them in such a way asto make his book attractive to readers. In so doing,however, he unwittingly has left us a better docu-mented work than those produced by the historians.

By citing his sources fully, he lets the reader make uphis own mind on the validity of the data, a practicethat is still today one of the marks of a good historian.

ABBREVIATIONS AND REFERENCES

AbO 'I-Faraj al-Isfahani. Maqitil al-Talibiyrn. Ed. Ahmad

Sakr. Cairo, 1368/1949.

Abfi Mikhnaf. Sezgin, Ursula. Aba Mihnaf: Ein Beitrag

zur Historiographie der umaiyadischen Zeit. Leiden, 1971.

Anslb. al-Sam'anil, 'Abd al-Karlm b. Muhammad. K. al-

Ansab. Hyderabad, 1962-.

Jarh. Ibn Abi 'I-Hatim. K. al-Jarh wa'l-Ta'dll. Hydera-

bad, 1360-73/ 1941-53.

El . Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Leiden, 1954-.

Fihrist. Ibn al-Nadim. K. al-Fihrist. Hrsg. v. G. Flgel.

Halle, 1872.

GAS. Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des arabischen Schrift-

tums, Vols. I and II. Leiden, 1967, 1975.

Ibn AbMI-Dunyd. K. Makdrim al-Akhldq. Ed. J. Bellamy.

Wiesbaden, 1973. (Bibliotheca Islamica, 25.)

Ibn Hibban al-Busti. MashdhTr 'Ulamd' al-Amsdr. Ed.

M. Fleischhammer. Cairo/Wiesbaden, 1959. (Bibliotheca

Islamica, 22.)



BELLAMY: Ibn AbT 'I-Dunyd'sKitab Maqtal Amir al-Mu'minin 'Ali 19

Ibn Sa'd, Muhammad. Kitdb al-Tabaqdt al-Kabir. Leiden,

1904-40.

Ikndl. Ibn Makula, 'Ali b. Hibat Allah. K al-IkmdlftRaf' al-Irtiydb 'an al-Mu'talaf wa'l-Mukhtalaf min al-

Asmd' wa'I-Kund wa'l-Ansdb. Hyderabad, 1381/ 1962-.

al-Kishshi, Abu 'Amr Muhammad b. 'CUmar. Rijdl al-

KishshT.Karbala, no date, recent.

Lubdb. Ibn al-Ath-r. K al-Lubdb fT TahdhTb l-Ansdb.

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