'Abd al-Nabi al-Jaza'iri

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'Abd al-Nabi al-Jaza'iri
Personal Information
Full Name'Abd al-Nabi b. Sa'd al-Jaza'iri
Religious AffiliationShia Islam
ResidenceKarbala
Studied inNajaf
Death1021/1612
Burial PlaceShiraz
Scholarly Information
Professorsal-Muhaqqiq al-Karaki, al-Sayyid Muhammad b. 'Ali al-'Amili
StudentsSayyid Mirza Jaza'iri
WorksHawi al-aqwal, al-Mabsut fi l-imama


ʿAbd al-Nabī al-Jazāʾirī (Arabic: عبد النبي الجزائري, d. 1021/1612) was a Shiite scholar of rijal in the eleventh/eighteenth century. In a division of scholars of rijal into founders, supplementers, compilers, and refiners, he counts as the first refiner. Another novel contribution of al-Jazaʾiri was the quadripartite classification of hadiths: sahih (authentic), muwaththaq (reliable), hasan (praised), and daʿif (weak or unreliable).

The author of Madarik and al-Muhaqqiq al-Karaki were his teachers. His works include Hawi al-aqwal (on rijal) and al-Mabsut fi l-imama (about the theological issue of imamate).

Biography

There is no information about ʿAbd al-Nabi al-Jazaʾiri’s date of birth. Given references by his teachers and students, some people have inferred that he was born around the middle of the tenth/sixteenth century.[1] His father’s name is said to be Saʿd,[2] although this was called into question by the biographer Abd Allah b. Isa al-Afandi.[3]

ʿAbd al-Jazaʾiri was originally from Jazaʾir,[4] a region in northwestern Basra in Iraq (known as Jibayish).[5] He studied in Najaf,[6] and in the last two decades of his life, he inhabited in Karbala.[7] He was contemporary with the following Shiite scholars: the author of Maʿalim (d. 1011/1602-3), the author of Madarik al-ahkam (d. 1009/1600), and al-Shaykh al-Bahaʾi (d. 1031/1621-2).[8]

Al-Jazaʾiri passed away on Jumada I 18, 1021/July 17, 1612 in a village between Isfahan and Shiraz in Iran. His grave is located in Shiraz.[9]

Education and Teaching

ʿAbd al-Nabi al-Jazaʾiri learned Islamic sciences in the Seminary School of Najaf. The author of Madarik[10] and al-Muhaqqiq al-Karaki[11] were his teachers. Given the age difference between al-Muhaqqiq al-Karaki and al-Jazaʾiri, the biographer Abd Allah b. 'Isa al-Afandi has cast doubt on al-Karaki being al-Jazaʾiri’s teacher.[12] Nevertheless, al-Muhaddith al-Nuri the Shiite scholar believes that al-Karaki was his teacher because of a permission cited by al-Allama al-Majlisi in his Bihar al-anwar, although al-Jazaʾiri was probably very young when he attended al-Karaki’s lectures.[13]

Al-Jazaʾiri also obtained a permission from the author of Madarik.[14]

Here are his students:

Pioneer of Transformations in Rijal

Some people believe that ʿAbd al-Nabi al-Jazaʾiri and Sayyid Mustafa al-Tafrishi were pioneers of the period of criticizing hadith transmitters and the science of rijal.[23] Sulayman b. 'Abd Allah al-Mahuzi categorizes scholars of rijal into four groups: founders, supplementers, compilers, and refiners (or researchers), holding that al-Jazaʾiri marked the beginning of the period of refinement.[24] He investigated the science of rijal and had a critical consideration of appraising the transmitters of hadiths.[25] Before al-Jazaʾiri, some scholars such as al-Shahid al-Thani also criticized rijal, but this was not comprehensive enough to include all the transmitters and aspects of the science of rijal.[26]

ʿAbd al-Nabi al-Jazaʾiri was the first to categorize the transmitters of hadiths into four groups: sahih (authentic), muwaththaq (reliable), hasan (praised), and da'if (weak or unreliable).[27] Before him, there was no categorization in assessing the transmitters, or there simply was the dual classification of authentic and weak.[28]

According to Abu 'Ali al-Ha'iri, a scholar of rijal in the thirteenth/nineteenth century, al-Jazaʾiri was like Ibn al-Ghada'iri in that he unfairly dismissed many transmitters of hadiths as weak and unreliable.[29] Ahmad al-Bahrani, the Shiite scholar of the eleventh/seventeenth century, was also quoted as saying that al-Jazaʾiri was too strict in his assessment of the transmitters,[30] which is perhaps why the reliability of some transmitters is established by his trust in them.[31]

According to Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Khwansari, ʿAbd al-Nabi al-Jazaʾiri was also an expert in jurisprudence, principles of jurisprudence, theology, hadith, and the like.[32]

Works

ʿAbd al-Nabi al-Jazaʾir wrote works in rijal, jurisprudence, principles of jurisprudence, and theology:

The book Hawi l-aqwal fi ma'rifat al-rijal

Hawi l-aqwal fi maʿrifat al-rijal[33] is a book of rijal, which attracted the attention of scholars because of its innovative methods.[34] In this book, he divides the transmitters of hadiths into four categories: sahih (authentic), muwaththaq (reliable), hasan (praised), and daʿif (weak or unreliable).[35] Moreover, in the introduction and the epilogue, he gives a definition of the science of rijal, introduces the titles of Imams of the Shia, outlines the seven Shiite sects,[36] and introduces People of Consensus.[37]

Other Works

  • Al-Imama[38] or al-mabsut fi l-imama:[39] This book has four sections: the notion of imamate, the necessity of the Imam being appointed by God, characteristics of Imams, and instances of imamate.[40]
  • Al-Iqtisad fi sharḥ al-irshad: it is a commentary on ʿAllama al-Hilli’s Irshad al-adhhan (to the end of the section on zakat) mixed with the original text.[43]
  • Commentaries on ʿAllama al-Hilli’s Irshad al-adhhan up to the section on marriage. In this work, he rests content with issuing his own fatwas.[44]
  • Ajwiba masaʾil al-Shaykh Jabir b. ʿAbbas al-Najafi usuliyya wa-fiqhiyya: replies to questions about jurisprudence and its principles asked by his student Jabir b. ʿAbbas al-Najafi.[47]

Notes

  1. Jazāʾirī, Hāwi l-aqwāl fī maʿrifat al-rijāl, vol. 1, p. 11.
  2. Khāwnsārī, Rawḍāt al-jannāt, vol. 4, p. 269.
  3. Afandī Iṣfahānī, Taʾlīqiyya amal al-ʾāmil, p. 183.
  4. Khāwnsārī, Rawḍāt al-jannāt, vol. 4, p. 268.
  5. Jazāʾirī, Hāwi l-aqwāl fī maʿrifat al-rijāl, vol. 1, p. 39.
  6. Khāwnsārī, Rawḍāt al-jannāt, vol. 4, p. 268.
  7. Jazāʾirī, Hāwi l-aqwāl fī maʿrifat al-rijāl, vol. 1, p. 36.
  8. Rabbānī, Sabkshināsī dānish-i rijāl al-hadīth, p. 159.
  9. Afandī Iṣfahānī, Riyāḍ al-ʿulamāʾ, vol. 3, p. 275.
  10. Ḥakīm, al-Mufaṣṣal fī tārīkh al-Najaf al-ashraf, vol. 4, p. 261.
  11. Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, ʾAmal al-āmil, vol. 2, p. 165.
  12. Afandī Iṣfahānī, Riyāḍ al-ʿulamāʾ, vol. 3, p. 273.
  13. Nūrī, Mustadrak al-wasāʾil, vol. 20, p. 179.
  14. Ḥakīm, al-Mufaṣṣal fī tārīkh al-Najaf al-ashraf, vol. 4, p. 261.
  15. Qummī, al-Kunā wa l-alqāb, vol. 2, p. 331.
  16. Afandī Iṣfahānī, Riyāḍ al-ʿulamāʾ, vol. 7, p. 139.
  17. Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, al-Dharīʿa, vol. 5, p. 252.
  18. Khāwnsārī, Rawḍāt al-jannāt, vol. 4, p. 271.
  19. Jazāʾirī, Hāwi l-aqwāl fī maʿrifat al-rijāl, vol. 1, p. 16, Introduction.
  20. Khāwnsārī, Rawḍāt al-jannāt, vol. 2, p. 171.
  21. Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, al-Dharīʿa, vol. 1, p. 207.
  22. Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, Ṭabaqāt aʿlām al-Shīʿa, vol. 8, p. 48.
  23. Rabbānī, Sabkshināsī dānish-i rijāl al-hadīth, p. 24.
  24. Baḥrānī, Miʿrāj ahl al-kamāl, author's introduction, p. 7-24.
  25. Baḥrānī, Miʿrāj ahl al-kamāl, author's introduction, p. 18-24.
  26. Baḥrānī, Miʿrāj ahl al-kamāl, author's introduction, p. 23.
  27. Rabbānī, Sabkshināsī dānish-i rijāl al-hadīth, p. 159.
  28. Mazandarānī Ḥāʾirī, Muntahā al-maqāl, author's introduction, p. 31.
  29. Mazandarānī Ḥāʾirī, Muntahā al-maqāl, author's introduction, p. 31.
  30. Rabbānī, Sabkshināsī dānish-i rijāl al-hadīth, p. 160.
  31. Rabbānī, Sabkshināsī dānish-i rijāl al-hadīth, p. 160.
  32. Khāwnsārī, Rawḍāt al-jannāt, vol. 4, p. 269.
  33. Kunturī, Kashf al-ḥujub, p. 192.
  34. Rabbānī, Sabkshināsī dānish-i rijāl al-hadīth, p. 159.
  35. Rabbānī, Sabkshināsī dānish-i rijāl al-hadīth, p. 159.
  36. Rabbānī, Sabkshināsī dānish-i rijāl al-hadīth, p. 164.
  37. Ṭalāʾiyān, Maʾkhadh-shināsī-yi rijāl-i Shī'a, p. 91.
  38. Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, al-Dharīʿa, vol. 2, p. 329.
  39. Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, al-Dharīʿa, vol. 19, p. 53.
  40. Khāwnsārī, Rawḍāt al-jannāt, vol. 4, p. 271.
  41. Al-sharh al-mazji” (commentary-cum-text or commentary mixed with the text) is a commentary that can be separated from the original text only with conventional signs.
  42. Āl Maḥbūba, Māḍī l-Najaf wa ḥāḍiruhā, vol. 2, p. 90.
  43. Āl Maḥbūba, Māḍī l-Najaf wa ḥāḍiruhā, vol. 2, p. 90.
  44. Āl Maḥbūba, Māḍī l-Najaf wa ḥāḍiruhā, vol. 2, p. 91.
  45. Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, Ṭabaqāt aʿlām al-Shīʿa, vol. 8, p. 358.
  46. Khāwnsārī, Rawḍāt al-jannāt, vol. 4, p. 271.
  47. Āl Maḥbūba, Māḍī l-Najaf wa ḥāḍiruhā, vol. 2, p. 91.

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