BAḠAVĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN

 

BAḠAVĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALĪ B. ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ B. MARZBĀN B. SĀBŪR, traditionist (moḥaddeṯ) and philologist in the 3rd/9th century. He came from Baḡšūr, a town near Marv-al-Rūḏ. Since he was more than ninety years old when he died in 286/899 or 287/900, his birth can be placed in the last decade of the second century A.H. Little is known about his life except that he certainly studied in Iraq and then settled at Mecca, where he remained until his death. He was considered reliable by some well-known authorities on Hadith such as Dāraqoṭnī and Ebn Abī Ḥātem, but because poverty forced him to take fees for his lectures, he was rejected by the eminent traditionist Abū ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Nasāʾī.

Baḡavī is mentioned as the compiler of a mosnad (collection arranged under the sources of transmission). Foremost among his teachers was Abū ʿObayd Qāsem b. Sallām Heravī, a theologian, philologist, and jurist who died at Mecca probably in 224/838-39. The latter’s books Ḡarīb al-ḥadīṯ, al-Ḥayż, and al-Ṭahāra were transcribed and passed on by Baḡavī; a section entitled Jozʾ fīhi men ḥadīṯ ʿAlī b. ʿAbd-al-ʿAzīz ʿan Abī ʿObayd al-Qāsem b. Sallām still survives in manuscript (Sezgin, GAS I, p. 161). Among Baḡavī’s other teachers were Fażl b. Dokayn Abū Noʿaym Taymī (d. 219/834) and ʿAffān b. Moslem Abū ʿOṯmān Ṣaffār (d. probably 220/835). His most distinguished pupil was his nephew ʿAbd-Allāh b. Moḥammad b. ʿAbd-al-ʿAzīz Abu’l-Qāsem Baḡavī known as Ebn bent Aḥmad b. Manīʿ (d. 317/929). Another pupil, Solaymān b. Aḥmad Abu’l-Qāsem Ṭabarānī (d. 360/971) also gained some repute.

 

Bibliography:

Ebn Abī Ḥātem, al-Jarḥ wa’l-taʿdīl III, 1, Hyderabad (Deccan), 1360/1941, p. 196.

Ebn al-Nadīm, al-Fehrest, ed. G. Flügel, Leipzig, 1871, p. 72.

Yāqūt, Eršād al-arīb ʿalā maʿrefat al-adīb V, ed. D. S. Margoliouth, Leiden and London, 1911 (GMS 64), pp. 247-49.

Moḥammad Ḏahabī, Taḏkerat al-ḥoffāẓ, 3rd ed., II, Hyderabad (Deccan), 1376/1956, pp. 622-23.

Idem, Mīzān al-eʿtedāl II, Cairo, 1325/1907, p. 232.

Idem, al-ʿEbar fī ḵabar man ḡabar II, Kuwait, 1961, p. 77.

Ebn Ḥajar ʿAsqalānī, Tahḏīb al-tahḏīb VII, Hyderabad (Deccan), 1326/1908, pp. 362-63.

Idem, Lesān al-mīzān IV, Hyderabad (Deccan), 1330/1912, p. 241.

Ḵayr-al-Dīn Zereklī, al-Aʿlām, 2nd ed., V, Cairo, 1374/1955, p. 113.

ʿOmar Reżā Kaḥḥāla, Moʿjam al-moʾallefīn VII, Damascus, 1378/1959, p. 124.

Search terms:

 بغوی، ابوالحسن baghavi abulhasan baghavi abolhasan baaghavi abulhasan
baghavy abolhasan baghavy aboulhasan baaghawy aboulhasan baghawi abolhasan

 

(H. Schützinger)

Originally Published: December 15, 1988

Last Updated: August 22, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. III, Fasc. 4, p. 407