Professor Bashar Awad
King Faisal Prize in Islamic Studies 2018 Laureate
Topic: "Critical Editions of Islamic Historical and Biographical Texts"
The hidden defects of Hadith arise from the mistakes of trusted Hadith authorities
Bashar Awad graduated from primary and secondary schools in 1960. He enrolled in the Department of History at the College of Arts at Baghdad University, from which he graduated in 1964. In that same year, he enrolled in the Master’s Program of History and Archeology at Baghdad University. Professor Marouf was appointed in 1967 as a teacher at the College of Shari’a Studies at Baghdad University. He later earned his Ph.D. from the College of Arts at the same university in 1976. His doctoral thesis was titled Ad-Dahabi’s Approach in ‘History of Islam’.
Professor Awad worked at Baghdad University and advanced through academic work, eventually earning professorship in 1981. He has been keenly interested in studying and minutely scrutinizing the Prophet’s Hadiths. He has been particularly devoted to studying biographies, narrators, and the ‘hidden defects’ of some Hadiths. He taught as a Professor of Hadith in several universities.
Many of Awad’s studies have been published in Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Beirut, Amman, Tunis, and London. Notable among his publications are The Impact of Hadith on the Emergence of Muslim History, Al-Mundhiri’s and His ‘Al-Takmila’, Baghdad’s Biographical Histories, Ad-Dahabi’s Approach in ‘History of Islam’, A Journey through Thought and Heritage, The History of Islam and the Concept of the Arab Leadership of the Islamic Ummah [community], Explanation of the Ruling on Chanting the Quran, A Selection of the Prophet’s Hadiths, The whole Musnad [collection of Hadith] (22 volumes), and Classified and Verified Musnad (41 volumes).
Among the many books Professor Marouf verified are Al-Wafayāt by Abu Masoud Al-Hajji, Ahlu Al-Mi’a and Upwards by Al-Hafiz Ad-Dahabi, Postscript to the History of Baghdad, City of Peace by Ibn Al-Dabaythi (5 volumes), The Grand Mosque by Imam Abu Issa Al-Tirmidhi in six volumes, Sunan Ibn Majah by Imam Muhammad ibn Yazid Al-Qazwini in six volumes, The History of the City of Peace by Hafiz Abu Bakr Al-Khatib Al-Baghdadi in seventeen volumes, The History of Islam and the Deaths of Celebrities and the Famous by Al-Hafiz Shams Addeen Ad-Sahabi in seventeen volumes, and many other publications.
This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.
