The Development of Early Sunnite Hadith
Criticism: The Taqdima of

Ibn Abi Hatim al-Razi (240/854-327/938)
Eerik Dickinson

Leiden, Brill, 2001. 146 pages.

Hadith is a uniquely Islamic discipline and of the utmost importance not only
to Islamic thought, but also to Islamic culture and civilization. It is in this vein
that ̀ Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak said that isnad (chain of transmission) is a part
of the religion. While most studies on Hadith literature in western scholarship
focus on the issue of authenticity, the hadith scholars’ method of determining
what is a basis for belief and practice, as well as that method’s historical
development, have been regretfully overlooked. The author’s The Develop-
ment of Early Sunnite Hadith Criticism: The Taqdima of Ibn Abi Hatim al-
Razi (240/854-327/938) proposes to fill in some of those gaps.

Chapter 1, “Hadith in the Time of Ibn Abi Hatim,” provides the setting
for Ibn Abi Hatim’s career. The two main factions of Islamic thought in the
third Islamic century were the adherents of hadith (ahl al-hadith) and their
rivals (ahl al-ra’y). Dickinson introduces two approaches to hadith: the
commentator (ahl al-ra’y) and the critic (ahl al-hadith). The commentator
accepted the canon as it was and treated it as though it were closed. Any con-
tradictions were dealt with through interpretation. The critic, however, man-
ipulated the canon’s boundaries and removed any objectionable material
(p. 7) by using the “objective criteria of hadith criticism” (p. 1). 

124 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 24:1



Chapter 2, “Ibn Abi Hatim al-Razi: Life and Works,” introduces us to
this scholar and his sitz im leben, his three rihlas to gather hadiths, and his
later life and passing away. Ibn Abi Hatim’s interest in hadith is reflected in
his oeuvre, which Dickinson classifies into three categories: hadith criticism
(six works), theology and religious subjects (ten works), and, lastly, biogra-
phy and history (three works). Chapter 3, “The Taqdima,” focuses on his
Taqdimat al-Ma`rifah li Kitab al-Jarh wa al-Ta`dil (Introduction to Kitab al-
Jarh wa al-Ta`dil), in which he seeks, as Dickinson tells us, to refute the
positions of ahl al-ra’y by showing that the early generations employed jarh
(impugning a narrator) and ta`dil (verifying a narrator’s reliability). Ibn Abi
Hatim uses the tabaqat (biography) genre to show that hadith criticism was
practiced by the early Hijazis. In analyzing the Taqdima’s style, Dickinson
notes Ibn Abi Hatim’s use of testimonial, biographical, and documentary
evidence. Each of these form the subject of the remaining chapters.

Chapter 4, “The Testimonial Evidence,” a mere four pages, illustrates
how Ibn Abi Hatim used testimonial evidence from the earliest Muslims to
prove that hadith criticism was practiced by the early generations of Muslims.
Ibn Abi Hatim uses not only Hijazi scholars (which would be preaching to
the choir) but also Kufan ahl al-ra’y scholars, thereby emphasizing that
hadith criticism was practiced across the board. Chapter 5, “Biographical
Evidence,” looks at how Ibn Abi Hatim used biographical entries to reveal
that his critics were indeed critics. To this end, he cites stories of dreams
involving his critics, their study and mastery of hadith, their moral insou-
ciance (zuhd) and scrupulousness (wara`), and, lastly, their relationship to
political authorities of their times. 

The last chapter, chapter 6, “The Documentary Evidence,” is the longest
and most substantial one. Documentary evidence shows that critics judged
the narrators, thereby proving that jarh existed among the earliest Muslims.
Going outside of the Taqdima, Dickinson also draws on Muslim’s Kitab al-
Tamyiz, Ibn Hibban’s Marjuhin and Sahih, and other books of the period to
show how the hadith critics formed their opinions about the narrators.

Dickinson seems baffled as to why Ibn Abi Hatim would mention his
critics’ zuhd and wara` (pp. 59, 71), seemingly implying that the early crit-
ics were concerned purely with the science of hadith criticism. Reliability,
however, was not simply a matter of scholarly precision but, more impor-
tantly, one of piety through devotion to the Prophet’s (Allah bless him and
give him peace) Sunnah. On page 81, the technical term dajjal is translated
as “antichrist.” While this is an appropriate translation in theological discus-
sions, in the nomenclature of hadith it would be more appropriate to trans-
late it as “imposter.” More significantly, Dickinson’s formulation of why Ibn

Book Reviews 125



Abi Hatim penned the Taqdima requires further substantiation. The whole
study revolves around his claim that Ibn Abi Hatim was writing to refute the
Kufans. But who are these Kufans that he is addressing? 

The author is to be commended for getting past the authenticity issue
(which western scholars and Muslim apologists cannot seem to do) and
focusing on hadith methodology. This methodology, however, was given
more extensive treatment in his other contribution to hadith studies: his
exceptional translation of Ibn Salah’s Muqaddima (An Introduction to the
Science of Hadith: Kitab Ma`rifat Anwa` al-Hadith [UK: Garnet Publishing,
2005]).

While some interesting (if not contentious) information is provided, the
promised “development of early Sunnite hadith criticism” is not delivered.
Perhaps it should have been subtitled A Development in Sunnite Hadith
Criticism, because Dickinson provides only one chapter of that story and,
unfortunately, an incomplete one at that. For instance, we are not told how
the Taqdima was received (in a book of 130 pages, space could not have
been the issue), the development of the ideas in the Taqdima among hadith
critics, or how the various disciplines of hadith criticism culminated in Ibn
Salah’s Muqaddima. What Dicksinson does provide us with is a brief intro-
duction to Ibn Abi Hatim, a study of his Taqdima, and the methods that he
employed therein. The book, fascinating and welcome as it is, unfortunately
promises more than it actually delivers.

Jawad Qureshi
Doctoral Student, Divinity School

University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

126 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 24:1