Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili
825 CE–919 CE · Baghdad
Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili (full name: Ahmad ibn Ali ibn al-Muthanna al-Tamimi al-Mawsili) was a Sunni traditionist — a collector and transmitter of hadith, the reports of the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad. Biographical sources place his birth in 210 AH (825/826 CE) in Mosul, in what is now northern Iraq, and his death there in 307 AH (919 CE), having lived nearly a century.
According to the later biographical tradition (tarajim), as a young man he was sent to study in the major centres of learning, where he heard hadith from leading masters of the previous generation. The teachers named for him — among them Yahya ibn Ma'in, Ali ibn al-Madini, and Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba — were associated chiefly with Baghdad, while others, such as the historian Khalifa ibn Khayyat, taught in Basra; this points to study-travel (rihla) southward, though the sources do not lay out a precise itinerary.
His enduring work is the Musnad Abi Ya'la, a large hadith collection arranged by the Companion who first narrated each report. It survives in two recensions, a larger and a smaller, and is treated by later scholars as a useful supplement to the better-known Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Among those who transmitted from him were Ibn Hibban, al-Tabarani, and Ibn Adi.
Later critics regarded him highly: al-Daraqutni called him "trustworthy and reliable" (thiqa ma'mun), and al-Dhahabi titled him "the hadith master of Mosul" (muhaddith al-Mawsil), though, as with most large collections, scholars note that individual reports within the Musnad vary in strength.
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BaghdadIraq
What they did here
The tarajim report that in his youth he travelled to the great cities to collect hadith. Most of his named teachers — Yahya ibn Ma'in, Ali ibn al-Madini, Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba, Ali ibn al-Ja'd — taught in Baghdad, which strongly implies study there, though the sources do not state it as an explicit itinerary stop.
About Baghdad
Major Mizrahi center; home of Yosef Hayyim (Ben Ish Chai).
Across the traditions, in Baghdad at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Jewish world
Works
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