Abu Dawud al-Sijistani

Abu Dawud Sulayman ibn al-Ash'ath al-Sijistani, the hadith scholar of Sistan, author of the Sunan of Abu Dawud, one of the Six Books. He was born around 202 AH and died around 275 AH (the conversion is derived). ¹

He travelled in search of hadith until he reached Basra, Baghdad, Khurasan, Syria and Egypt. In his book he restricted himself to the hadiths of rulings, arranged by the chapters of jurisprudence. ¹

What is not covered here: the pages of the source. A second source is needed for the dates of birth and death.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) entry on al-Ash'ath (the printed heading for Abu Dawud al-Sijistani) gives his birth as 202/817 and his death in Shawwal 275/February 889. He travelled widely for his studies and settled at Basra, which the article says is why some wrongly derived the nisba Sijistani from a village near Basra. His Kitab al-Sunan is one of the six canonical books accepted by Sunnis, and it was submitted to Ahmad b. Hanbal, who approved it. Ibn Dasa reports Abu Dawud's claim to have collected 4,800 traditions out of 500,000. The article says he added notes on the weakness or soundness of his traditions, and that his detailed notes prepared the way for the criticism of al-Tirmidhi. ²