Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī was a prominent collector of prophetic hadith. He seems to have collected in Iraq, Mecca, and Syria A.H. 220-35, then Khurasan till the early 240s, then Iraq, Syria, and Egypt till around 250. He claimed to have collected 500,000 in all. He spent most of the years 250-70 in Tarsus, composing his famous Sunan, then the last five years of his life teaching near Basra. This article reviews Abū Dāwūd's known works, especially al-Sunan, which became one of (...) the Six Books. The Sunan was transmitted from him in slightly different versions by nine named traditionists. A little under 90 percent of it goes back to the Prophet. It is distinguished from other collections by its concentration on hadith that classify actions . Abū Dāwūd's express comments within the Sunan concern alternative versions, legal applications, and rijāl criticism. Because it seldom repeats hadith under multiple topics, it is probably the largest of the Six Books. It must be admitted that Abū Dāwūd was unusually careless at identifying men in asānīd. In his personal piety, Abū Dāwūd stood above all for modesty. His separate collection of hadith on renunciation, al-Zuhd, comprises mainly the sayings of Companions. In law, Abū Dāwūd was close to Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal . In theology, he adhered to the ninth-century ahl al-sunnah wa-l-jamā‘ah. He is also said to have admired and been admired by the proto-Sufi Sahl al-Tustarī. (shrink)

The Inquisition of al-Maʾmūn was a serious attempt to establish the caliph as arbiter of Islamic orthodoxy. It was actively prosecuted by the succeeding two caliphs, and finally abolished by his nephew, the caliph al-Mutawakkil, in 237/852. The most information we have about it by far is how it was carried out in Baghdad. Various sources, mostly biographical, also tell us something of its prosecution in Basra, Kufa, Damascus, Isfahan, Old Cairo, and Qayrawan, surveyed here. These scattered data confirm that (...) it was largely about bringing the emerging scholarly class under control. They may also indicate that the Inquisition was instituted not in 218 but already in 217/832-3. (shrink)