Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Fattal al-Nayshaburi

Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Fattal al-Nayshaburi

Personal Information
Full Name	Muhammad b. Hasan al-Fattal al-Nayshaburi
Religious Affiliation	Shi'a
Death	508/1114-5
Scholarly Information
Professors	Hasan b. 'Ali al-Fattal (his father) • al-Shaykh al-Tusi • Sayyid Murtada 'Alam al-Huda
Students	Ibn Shahrashub • Ali b. Hasan al-Nayshaburi
Works	Rawdat al-wa'izin • al-Tanwir fi ma'am al-tafsir

Muḥammad b. Ḥasan al-Fattāl al-Nayshābūrī (Arabic:محمد بن حسن الفتّال النیشابوري)(d. 508/1114-5), known as Ibn Fattāl (إبن فتّال) and Ibn al-Fārsī (إبن الفارسي), was among Shi'a scholars of 5th/11th and 6th/12th century. He was among Ibn Shahr Ashub's sources of hadiths and transmitted hadiths from al-Shaykh al-Tusi and al-Sharif al-Murtada. He wrote two books called Rawdat al-wa'idin and al-Tanwir fi ma'ani al-tafsir. Also, some have attributed Munis al-hazin to him. Al-Fattal al-Nayshaburi was killed by Shihab al-Islam. He is mentioned as martyr.

Similar Names

There are two problems About Fattal:

Some have mentioned his name as Muhammad b. Hasan and some as Muhammad b. Ali and some others Muhammad b. Ahmad and even Ibn Shahrashub mentioned two names for him. On the opposite, some great biographers have considered these names referring to the same person and it seems that it is close to the truth.

Meaning of Fattal

Although "Fattal" has mostly been defined as "the one who winds a thread or filament", but another meaning, dictionaries have mentioned is "nightingale" and a group of biographers have said that this title was given to him due to his good voice and eloquence in speech.

Birth and Lineage

The date of his birth is not mentioned in any book of biography and rijal written since 6th/12th century. In Rawdat al-wa'idin, there is no mention about this either. The name of his father has been mentioned differently in the books of rijal as Hasan, Ahmad and Ali.

Ibn Shahr Ashub was born in 489/1096 and was 19 when al-Fattal was martyred.

Works

All of those, who have given a biography of al-Fattal al-Neyshaburi, have only mentioned one or two works for him as following:

• Rawdat al-wa'izin wa basirat al-mutta'izin which is among the sources of Bihar al-anwar and has been published in Iran and Iraq several times. Husayni Ha'iri has quoted hadith from it in Tasliyat al-majalis.
• Al-Tanwir fi ma'ani al-tafsir: is among Shi'a commentaries on the Qur'an. It was very famous in 6th/12th century and 'Abd al-Jalil Qazwini Razi has mentioned it as of the same importance as al-Shaykh al-Tusi's al-Tibyan and al-Tabrisi's Majma' al-bayan. It is not available now and it seems that it has been lost.

In his Manaqib, Ibn Shahrashub has also mentioned another book of al-Fattal called Munis al-hazin and has quoted one of the merits of Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (a) from that. However, some believe that it belonged to al-Shaykh al-Saduq.

His Age

Al-Fattal lived a relatively long life and there are evidences that his birth could not be after 425/1033-4 and if his martyrdom has happened in 508/1114-5, he must have been about 80 years old upon his death.

Martyrdom

There is no explanation in the books of biography and rijal about why and how he was martyred, but it has been mentioned in all Shi'a books of rijal that he was martyred by Shihab al-Islam, a nephew or close relative of Nizam al-Mulk and the title of "Shahid" has been mentioned for him in many sources. Shaykh Muntajab al-Din in Tarikh Rey and Ibn Hajar in Lisan al-mizan have mentioned the date of his martyrdom in 508/1114-5.

The one who ordered to martyr him was Shihab al-Islam 'Abd al-Razzaq who is mentioned as "the chief of Neyshabur". In Tarikh Beyhaqi, Abu l-Hasan Ali b. Zayd Beyhaqi mentioned this person, the nephew of Nizam al-Mulk and son of the great jurist Abu l-Qasim 'Abd Allah. Beyhaqi mentioned him as "imam wazir".