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Uzbekistan: a land multifarious geniuses. ABU SA’ID HAYSAM IBN KULAYB SHASHI (Died in 947)

Islam is considered as one of the main roots of human culture. Such great geniuses as Imam al-Bukhari, Imam at-Termizi, Imam al-Maturidi, Mahmud az-Zamakhshari, Burhan ad-din al-Marghinani, who were born on this sacred land, made a substantial contribution to the teachings and the theory of Islam.

It is well known from the historical sources that during the 9th-12th centuries such ancient cities of Central Asia as Bukhara, Samarkand, Nasaf (Karshi), Termez, Khiva and Shash (Tashkent) were famous as cultural and scientific centres of the Islamic world. Among them Shash (modern Tashkent) of the Middle Ages being one of the centres of science and education produced a number of learned people who were famous in the Islamic sciences as law, the science of Hadiths, etc. They were famous throughout the world under the penname “Shashi”. The study of their lives and creative acti­vities as well as their scientific heritage will serve as a worthy share | to the study of the history of the valley Shash and will help the researchers to define the amount of their scientific contribution to the development and spread of the Islamic sciences in the area.    ^

One of the scholars known as Imam ash-Shashi was out countryman Abu Said al-Haysam ibn Kulayb ash-Shashi who made a considerable contribution to the science of Hadiths. In most of the historical sources written in the Arabic language, he is estimated as a reliable expert in the science of Hadiths.

His full name was Abu Said al-Haysam ibn Kulayb ibn Surayj (some sources cite him as “Shurayh”) ibn Ma’qid ash Shashi al-Binkasi at-Turki al-Ma’qili al-Adib.  In the historic.il sources his date of birth is not shown but his date of death is said to be 335/947.

It is well known that the 9th (the 3rd A.H.) century is charac­terized as a period of zenith in the development of the science of Hadiths in the history of Maveraunnahr and Khorasan. This period is often acknowledged in the historical sources as a “golden period” of the development of the science of Hadiths in this area.

Haysam ibn Kulayb Shashi lived and created his discoveries in this “golden” period. According to the information that reached us, Haysam ibn Kulayb Shashi visited such centres of science and culture as Bukhara, Samarkand, Nasaf and Termez in search of knowledge, education and enlightenment and received lessons from the acknow­ledged and estimated experts in the science of Hadiths. In order to improve his knowledge he also visited some foreign countries as Balkh and Baghdad. In Balkh, he was taught the science of Hadiths by Zakariyya ibn Yahya ibn Asad al-Marvazi and by Isa ibn Ahmad al-Asqalani. In Baghdad, he attended the lessons delivered by Abbas ibn Muhammad ad-Duri, Yahya ibn Ja’far az-Zabarqan and some others.

According to the evidences provided by a famous Arabic histo­rian Shamsuddin az-Zahabi in his writings, Haysam ibn Kulayb Shashi learned the essence of the science of Hadiths from his contemporaries who were the best experts in the science of Hadiths r Isa ibn al-Asqalani, the greatest expert in Hadiths Imam Abu Isa Muhammad at-Termizi, Zakariyya ibn al-Marvazi, Abu Ja’far Mu­hammad ibn Ubaydullah ibn al-Munadi, Hamdan ibn Ali al-Varraq, Ahmad ibn Mula’ib, Muhammad ibn Isa al-Mada’ini, Abu al-I Mikhtari, ibn Shakir, Ali ibn Sahl, Ibrahim ibn Abdullah al-Qassar, Yahya Abu Talib, Abbas ibn Muhammad ad-Duri, Muhammad ibn I . haq al-Saghani and some others.

Educational situation in Haysam ibn Kulayb Shashi’s family i’laved an important role in his formation as a mature specialist in lie science. As the period in which Haysam ibn Kulayb Shashi ‘d was a “golden” period in the development of the science of I ladiths, the greatest experts in Hadiths (six in number) were educated in this period. Such specialists in the field of Hadith as Abu Hatam ar-Razi, Abbas ibn Muhammad ad-Duri, Salih Jazra, Abu Ya’la al-Mavsali, Ibn al-Jarud and others collected and did their best in defending the contents and authorities of the Hadiths mentioned by our Prophet Muhammad (saas).

Ne’matulla Muhamedov
Candidate of Historical Sciences

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