Ibn Butta al-Qummi
| Personal Information | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Muhammad b. Ja'far b. Ahmad |
| Teknonym | Abu Ja'far |
| Epithet | al-Mu'addab |
| Well-Known As | Ibn Butta al-Qummi |
| Religious Affiliation | Shi'a |
| Residence | Qom |
| Scholarly Information | |
| Works | Tafsir Asma' Allah, Qurb al-isnad, Fihrist Ibn Butta |
Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar b. Aḥmad (Arabic: أبو جعفر محمد بن جعفر بن أحمد) known as Ibn Buṭṭa al-Qummi, was a Shi'a hadith scholar of 4th/10th century. He transmitted hadiths from some famous Shi'a hadith transmitters such as Ahmad b. Abi 'Abd Allah al-Barqi and Muhammad b. Hasan al-Saffar. The books commentary of Asma' Allah on the Qur'an, Qurb al-isnad and Fihrist of Ibn Butta are attributed to him.
His Life
From his teachers, sources of hadiths, students and transmitters of his hadiths, it can be guessed that he was probably born in late 3rd/9th century and died in early 4th/10th century.
He was known as "al-Mu'addab" and lived in Qom and was known for his knowledge and morality. It is also possible that he sometimes lived in Baghdad, because some of his students in Baghdad learned from him and received permission from him for transmitting hadiths.
His Personality in Rijal
Almost in all Shi'a sources of rijal, Ibn Butta is praised for his faith and piety. However, most Shi'a rijal scholars considered him weak and said that he transmitted hadiths carelessly and thus, there are many mistakes in hadiths he transmitted. But, some recent rijal scholars considered him reliable.
At any rate, Ibn Butta is in the order of transmitters of hadiths such as al-Shaykh al-Saduq, al-Shaykh al-Mufid and al-Shaykh al-Tusi.
His Works
Some works are attributed to Ibn Butta, none of which is available now. They are:
Tafsir Asma' Allah, Qurb al-isnad, Fihrist Ibn Butta which is most probably his Tabaqat al-rijal which was the continuation of the work of his teacher, al-Barqi.
In addition to these, he compiled a book with the similar style as al-Saduq's al-Khisal and al-Barqi's al-Mahasin and was sequential and was titled as, al-Wahid, Kitab al-ithnayn, Kitab al-thalatha with more than 40 volumes and was probably compiled into one book.
References
- The material for this article is mainly taken from ابن بطه قمی in Farsi WikiShia.