al-Baghawi

1042 CE–1122 CE · Marw al-Rudh

Abu Muhammad al-Husayn ibn Mas'ud al-Baghawi was a Sunni scholar of Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir), prophetic traditions (hadith), and law (fiqh) who lived and worked in the Khurasan region of greater Iran during the Seljuq period. His name derives from his birthplace, Bagh (Baghshur), a small town said to lie between Herat and Merv. The year of his birth is uncertain: the geographer Yaqut places it in 433 AH (1042 CE), while later biographers give 436 AH; both are estimates and the sources disagree.

In law he followed the school (madhhab) of al-Shafi'i. His principal teacher was the jurist al-Qadi Husayn al-Marwarrudhi in the town of Marw al-Rudh, where al-Baghawi seems to have spent most of his career. Tradition gives him the honorific "Muhyi al-Sunna" ("Reviver of the Sunna"), reflecting his reputation for teaching on the basis of hadith.

He is best known for the Qur'an commentary Ma'alim al-Tanzil, which scholars describe as a hadith-centred reworking of an earlier tafsir by al-Tha'labi. His other widely circulated works include Sharh al-Sunna and Masabih al-Sunna (hadith collections) and al-Tahdhib (Shafi'i law). Biographers depict him as ascetic and frugal in food and dress; one report says no record survives of his performing the pilgrimage, and his life appears to have been centred in Khurasan rather than spent in long travels. He died in Marw al-Rudh in Shawwal 516 AH (1122–1123 CE) and, by report, was buried beside his teacher.

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Marw al-Rudh

What they did here

Al-Baghawi studied fiqh and hadith under al-Qadi Husayn al-Marwarrudhi at Marw al-Rudh and appears to have spent his working life there. He died in Marw al-Rudh in Shawwal 516 AH (1122-1123 CE). One tradition reports he was buried beside his teacher in the town's cemetery.

About Marw al-Rudh

Marw al-Rudh ('Merv on the river'), in the historic region of Khurasan in present-day northern Afghanistan (Bala Murghab region), was a town on the upper Murghab river, distinct from the larger Merv (Marw al-Shahijan) to its north. The Shafi'i Qur'an commentator and hadith scholar al-Baghawi (d. c. 1122), author of Ma'alim al-Tanzil and Masabih al-Sunna, took his nisba from nearby Bagh/Baghshur in this region.

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