The Problem of al-Jam’ wa al-Tafrīq in Books relating to the Sahaba
The issue of al-jam’ wa al-tafrīq [combining and differentiating] first became apparent early on, with the very beginning of the genre of rijāl al-hadith, being the study of hadith narrators. Within chains of hadith narrations, one finds many narrators who share the same name. More specifically, two...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Arabic |
| Published: |
Istanbul University Press
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Darulfunun Ilahiyat |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/221AA4D9843D482894F0FC73F1FFDB8D |
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| Summary: | The issue of al-jam’ wa al-tafrīq [combining and differentiating] first became apparent early on, with the very beginning of the genre of rijāl al-hadith, being the study of hadith narrators. Within chains of hadith narrations, one finds many narrators who share the same name. More specifically, two narrators may have the same first name and father’s name, first name and family name, first name and kunya [honorific], or the like. This problem appeared so frequently that scholars who’ve tackled it over the years first dedicated specific terminology to this, al-muttafiq wa al-muftariq [the alike and the unalike], and then built a whole sub-genre dedicated to this under the broader field of hadith studies. Just as this issue appears in all books dedicated to the study of hadith narrators, it also is a frequent question in books more narrowly focused on the biographies of the Sahaba, the companions of the Prophet Muhammad. This study aims to give careful consideration to this issue of al-jam’ wa al-tafrīq in books dedicated to the Sahaba specifically. It uncovers the perceptiveness of the authors of this genre and the particular attention they paid to solving this matter, both in theory and in practice. This study further aims to identify their tendencies toward either narrowing or expanding, such as whether they tended to consider narrators with shared names as a single individual or as separate individuals, and to evaluate the efficacy of their approaches toward resolving this issue. The article begins with Ibn Manda and Abu Nu’aym, moves on to Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, and ends with Ibn al-Athīr and Ibn Hajar. Beyond tracing the history of this issue and its development through books dedicated to the Sahaba, this paper will identify the various ways these authors addressed companions with shared names and will evaluate the effectiveness of their perspectives. The article then ends by offering critical suggestions to refine the methodology currently used when approaching this issue. |
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| ISSN: | 2651-5083 |