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A Successor (tabi'i) known for his reports concerning the Children of Israel; raised as the son of a Jewish scholar, after his conversion he was remembered among the Companions and Successors for his wide knowledge of the culture of the People of the Book — a scholar from Yemen. His full name is Abu Ishaq Ka'b b. Mati' b. Haynu' al-Himyari al-Yamani.
He was born around the year 550 CE. He belonged to the Dhu Ru'ayn (Dhu al-Kala') lineage living in Yemen; his grandfather's name is also given as Haysu' or Amr. He came to be called Ka'b al-Ahbar because of his wide learning (hibr/habr, plural ahbar); according to a less common report the name comes from his writing with ink (hibr), and he is also called Ka'b al-Hibr. According to a report transmitted by Ibn Sa'd, his father, a Jewish scholar, wrote out part of the Torah, gave it to him and advised him to be content with it, then locked his other books in a cupboard and made his son promise not to read them.
There are differing reports as to when he embraced Islam (see Multiple Perspectives). According to the same report of Ibn Sa'd, when Islam had spread everywhere he read the books his father had hidden, and on seeing in them the attributes of the Messenger of God and his community he became a Muslim, and al-Abbas took him under his protection. The source notes that some strange stories were also fabricated about his conversion.
He transmitted hadith from Companions such as Umar and Suhayb al-Rumi, and also reported from the Prophet in mursal form. It is related that at first he told stories (qasas), gave this up on hearing the hadith forbidding storytelling to those not appointed by the head of state, and resumed it when Mu'awiya gave him permission. It is reported that Umar took interest in what he related, asked him for counsel and followed his advice.
He settled in Hims and took part in the wars against the Byzantines. According to the report the source adopts, he died in Hims in the year 32 (652-53), having passed 100 years of age; the other reports on the date and place are given under Multiple Perspectives.
His Circle of Influence — Among the Companions, Umar, Abd Allah b. Umar, Abd Allah b. Abbas, Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr, Abu Hurayra and Mu'awiya b. Abi Sufyan benefited from him; Successors such as Umar's two freedmen Aslam and Abu Rafi' al-Sa'igh, Malik b. Amir, Sa'id b. al-Musayyab, Ata' b. Yasar, and his stepsons Tubay' al-Himyari and Nawf b. Fadala also transmitted from him. His reports appear in Malik's al-Muwatta' and in the Sunan of al-Darimi, Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi and al-Nasa'i. According to the source, part of the information in many works of later periods rests on reports transmitted from Ka'b: the historical material in Ibn al-Jawzi's Fada'il al-Quds and Diya' al-Din al-Maqdisi's Fada'il Bayt al-Maqdis, the reports on the prophets in al-Kisa'i's Qisas al-anbiya' and al-Tha'labi's Ara'is al-majalis, the history of Mecca in al-Azraqi's Akhbar Makka, the accounts of the creation and of the prophets in Ibn al-Athir's al-Kamil, as well as part of the material in the works of al-Mutahhar b. Tahir al-Maqdisi and Ibn Khaldun. Modern studies have also been devoted to him: Israel Wolfensohn wrote a doctoral thesis on his place in hadith and in Islamic legendary literature (Frankfurt 1933), Muhammad Ali Abu Hamda compiled the views about him (Amman 1411/1991), and Moshe Perlmann published two narrative texts about his conversion (1953, 1954).
His Poetry and Sufi Line — Ka'b was not a poet; this section gives his line as a transmitter. As the source relates, al-Dhahabi says that because he possessed an unaltered copy of the Torah he knew well the books of the Jews and the sound and fabricated reports in them. Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani likewise quotes extensively from this copy inherited from his father, said to be unaltered, especially on the necessity of believing in the final prophet and the merit of his community. Reports have also been transmitted that Ka'b destroyed this copy some time before his death, and that the Companions, seeing that some of his interpretations of Qur'anic verses based on it agreed with the hadith, approved of him. The reports of the Isra'iliyyat type that he transmitted lie at the centre of the debate over his reliability (see Multiple Perspectives).
His Works — The source records no work written by Ka'b himself; it speaks of texts attributed to him. Brockelmann mentions a Hadith Dhi al-Kifl fabricated in the name of Ka'b al-Ahbar (Bulaq 1283), and al-Zirikli a two-volume work entitled Sirat al-Iskandar. The work called Kitab Ka'b al-Ahbar is seen to consist of reports attributed to him (Süleymaniye Library, Hacı Mahmud Efendi, no. 4923).
His Tomb and Complex — Ka'b's own article says nothing of a tomb structure. The article HUMUS lists the Maqam of Ka'b al-Ahbar among the other tombs worth mentioning in the city after the tomb attributed to Khalid b. al-Walid; it gives no further information on the building.
Differing Scholarly Views
The reliability of Ka'b al-Ahbar has long been debated because of his reports of the Isra'iliyyat type. The atlas takes no side in this debate; it records the views the source transmits side by side, together with those who hold them. The source article is written within the Sunni tradition of hadith methodology; the author's own assessment is marked below under a separate heading as 'the source'.
His conversion to Islam — The reports give three different times: according to al-Waqidi he became a Muslim while living in Yemen, on meeting Ali, who had gone there in the Prophet's lifetime; according to al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hajar he became a Muslim in the time of Abu Bakr; and according to another account he came to Medina in Umar's caliphate, and on learning that the caliph was in Jerusalem went there and became a Muslim in his presence. The atlas does not choose between these reports.
A report in al-Bukhari — Al-Dhahabi indicates that Ka'b has a report in Sahih al-Bukhari. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, however, states that this is not correct: although Ka'b's name occurs in the text in question, the report is an assessment belonging to Mu'awiya b. Abi Sufyan and does not come from Ka'b.
The attitude of the Companions — It is reported that Umar took interest in what he related, asked him for counsel and followed his advice; at the same time it is stated that he said he would banish him from Medina unless he stopped relating certain things. Ibn Mas'ud criticised him for the unfounded matters in his reports, and other figures among the Companions are mentioned as having taken a negative stance towards his reports. Mu'awiya, in his statement transmitted by al-Bukhari, is recorded as saying that Ka'b was the most reliable of those who report from the People of the Book, while drawing attention to the need to examine his reports for the unfounded things they might contain.
The verdicts of the traditionists — Ibn Hibban lists him in his al-Thiqat. Al-Nawawi, after citing Abu al-Darda's view that he was a very learned scholar, says there is agreement on his wide knowledge and on his being thiqa (trustworthy). Ibn Asakir and Abu Nu'aym give him ample space in their works. Al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hajar made no disparaging statement about him when examining his biography, and al-Dhahabi further pointed to his vast learning and piety. The source also regards his absence from works on the biographies of weak and abandoned transmitters as a point in his favour.
The modern debate — Some modern authors have criticised him, taking into account his Isra'iliyyat reports and the statements of some Companions about him. Muhammad Rashid Rida said that Ka'b brought such reports into Islam and was not sincere in his outward acts of worship, claimed that this side of him remained hidden from many traditionists, and said that the scholars who considered him thiqa were mistaken. Ahmad Amin and Abu Rayya carried this approach further. Authors such as Muhammad Husayn al-Dhahabi, Muhammad Ajjaj al-Khatib and Muhammad b. Muhammad Abu Shuhba, on the other hand, defended Ka'b against these criticisms; according to the source the debate retains its importance today.
The source's assessment — The author of the article, M. Yaşar Kandemir, does not find it acceptable that a man from whom some Companions transmitted, and about whom no assessment casting doubt on the sincerity of his Islam exists, should be portrayed as someone deliberately trying to introduce falsehood into the religion; he notes that no view confirming such an accusation was put forward in the generations after the Companions. In his view the criticisms of some Companions should be understood not as meaning that Ka'b invented unfounded things, but that some of the Isra'ili reports he transmitted were information incompatible with the facts; this points not to insincerity in religion but to the need to scrutinise his Isra'iliyyat reports carefully. The atlas records this assessment as the author's.
Date and place of death — The source's heading gives the year of death, with a question mark, as 32 (652-53); the report adopted in the body is likewise that he died in Hims in 32 (652-53). It is also mentioned that he died in 34 or 35, and that he died in Damascus and was buried in the Bab al-Saghir cemetery (M. Adib al-Husni). The exact year and place are not known; the atlas does not hide these reports.
The location of the grave — Ka'b's own article says that he died in Hims but does not speak of a tomb structure there. The article HUMUS lists the Maqam of Ka'b al-Ahbar among the city's tombs, without stating whether it is a grave or a station (maqam) attributed to him. The other report places his grave in Damascus, in the Bab al-Saghir cemetery. The atlas marker points to the maqam in Hims; the location of the grave is not settled by these sources.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) · vol. 24, pp. 1-3, entry “K‘B el-AHBÂR”
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) — Robert Mantran · vol. 18, pp. 370-373, entry “HUMUS”
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Permanent ID: EA-Z-000298 · this address reaches the same record even if its name changes; use it when citing.
External records: TDV Encyclopedia of Islam article