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Tahdhib

Tahdhib, from the Arabic تهذيب (tahdhib), means refinement, polishing, or editing. In Islamic sciences, the term is used for the process of editing or evaluating texts and, especially, people. In the field of hadith studies, tahdhib refers to the systematic critique and verification of narrators and their reports as part of the discipline known as jarh wa ta’dil (criticism and accreditation). Works bearing tahdhib in their titles commonly aim to refine, correct, or supplement earlier biographical or textual sources.

The most famous work titled Tahdhib is Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, authored by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (14th–15th century).

Tahdhib al-Tahdhib has become a foundational reference for hadith criticism. It is widely cited in scholarly

This
is
a
major
biographical
dictionary
of
hadith
transmitters,
intended
as
a
refinement
and
extension
of
earlier
biographical
compilations.
Ibn
Hajar
synthesizes
and
cross-references
the
judgments
of
earlier
scholars,
such
as
al-Khatib
al-Baghdadi,
al-Dhahabi,
and
Ibn
Abi
Hatim,
to
provide
biographical
details
and
assessments
of
reliability,
memory,
and
credibility.
The
entries
typically
include
notes
on
the
narrator’s
acceptability,
watch
for
inconsistencies,
and
the
status
of
specific
reports
in
which
they
appear,
along
with
chains
of
transmission.
works
to
determine
the
authenticity
of
reports
and
to
understand
the
scholarly
context
surrounding
a
narrator.
The
text
has
been
published
in
multiple
editions
and
frequently
appears
in
conjunction
with
other
classic
sources
in
the
science
of
hadith
and
biographical
literature.