Shu'ba Ibn al-Ḥajjāj

Shuʿba bin al-Ḥajjāj bin al-Ward, Abū Busṭām al-ʿAtakī (c. 85–160/704–776 AH/CE) was an early, devout Muslim, who was known for both his knowledge of poetry and of ḥadīth. His scrupulousness in ḥadīth transmission, alongside other scholars such as Sufyān al-Thawrī, is understood to have laid the foundation for the concretization of ḥadīth sciences.

Biography

Shuʿba bin al-Ḥajjāj was born with a speech impediment (althagh) sometime between the years 80–86 AH, though likely 85, in Wāsiṭ, a historical city located on the west bank of the Tigris River in central ʿIrāq. He then moved to Baṣra as a child, where lived, studied, and later died in 160/776 AH/CE due to plague. It is mentioned in al-Dhahabi's Tārīkh al-Islām that Shuʿba studied masāʿil (juridical affairs) under both Anas Ibn Mālik and Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, but not much is known of his juridical endeavors.