Ilm al-Rijal

The biographical science of the narrators: who they were, whom they met, and how reliable each was.

Also written · Ilm ar-Rijal · Ilmul Rijal · Rijal · Rijaal · Ilm al-Rijaal · Asma al-Rijal · Science of narrators · Biographical evaluation · Tabaqat · Ilm ur-Rijaal

The meaning

What Ilm al-Rijal means in Islam

Tens of thousands of narrators were catalogued by generation, or tabaqat, so a claimed meeting between two men could be checked against their lifespans. The large references include al-Bukhari's al-Tarikh al-Kabir, Ibn Abi Hatim's al-Jarh wa al-Ta'dil, and al-Mizzi's Tahdhib al-Kamal. Ibn Hajar's Taqrib al-Tahdhib condenses the verdict on each man into a line or two.

Evidence · Editorial · Our own summary, drawn from the sources named

Read beside it

Words that sit beside it

Jarh wa Ta'dilThe discipline of criticising or vouching for narrators, so that a chain can be judged fairly.الجَرْحُ وَالتَّعْدِيل
RawiA narrator: one of the people in the chain who heard a report and passed it on.الرَّاوِي
ThiqahA trustworthy narrator: upright in character and accurate in memory, the two conditions held together.ثِقَة
MajhulAn unknown narrator, whose identity or whose reliability the scholars could not establish.المَجْهُول