Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn `Ali ibn Thabit ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi al-Shafi`i (1020-1081), A.K.A al-Khatib al-Baghdadi or the writer from Baghdad was a Shafi'i Sunni Muslim Islamic scholar.

Sunni view

al-Dhahabi praised him as:

''"the most peerless imam, erudite scholar and mufti, meticulous hadith master, scholar of his time in hadith, prolific author, and seal* of the hadith masters

(What is meant by seal here is that his excellence was unequalled after him in his field. It is a hyperbolic praise.)

Al-Qinnawji said:

"He was a jurist whose preference went to hadith and history." (Abjad al-`Ulum (3:96))

However, he deemed weak narrations where Muhammad was quoted as predicting Abu Hanifa, and for this, Allama Yusuf, a Hanbali scholar, quoted in his work Tanwir as-sahifa from Hafiz 'Allama Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Barr (b. 978 and d. 1071 in Shatiba), Qadi of Lisbon, Portugal:

Do not slander Abu Hanifa and do not believe those who slander him! I swear by Allahu ta'ala that I know not a person superior to him, having more wara', or being more learned than he. "Do not believe what al-Khatib al-Baghdadi said! He was antipathetic towards the 'ulama'. He slandered Abu Hanifa, Imam Ahmad and their disciples. The 'ulama' of Islam refuted al-Khatib and censured him. ^*

Works

• History of Baghdad (Arabic: Tarikh Baghdad)

See also

• List of Islamic scholars

External links

• http://www.abc.se/~m9783/o/khtb_e.html
• http://www.abc.se/~m9783/n/vwh_e.html
• http://www.geocities.com/~abdulwahid/abuhanifah/al-imam.html
• http://www.indiana.edu/~rcapub/v21n1/p15.html
• http://www.jannah.org/sisters/womenhadith.html