Did Qabīṣah ibn ʿUqbah travel in pursuit of knowledge?
Weighing the biographical evidence and reports about his alleged entry into Baghdād.
Qabīṣah ibn ʿUqbah ibn Muḥammad ibn Sufyān as-Suwaʾī al-Kūfī, the companion of Sufyān ath-Thawrī – and he narrated abundantly from him – there is nothing to indicate that he traveled in pursuit of ḥadīth.
Adh-Dhahabī said in his biography in Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ (10/130):
“And I do not think he traveled for ḥadīth, and he was one of the vessels of knowledge.”
And al-Khaṭīb mentioned him in Tārīkh Baghdād (14/493) and said:
“And Qabīṣah came to Baghdād, and narrated there, and I wrote from some of our shaykhs a report of Qabīṣah which included mention of his arrival and his narration there, but it slipped from me and I was not able to find it up to this moment.”
I say: Al-Khaṭīb relied upon a report about Qabīṣah’s entry into Baghdād, but it slipped from him!
It appears that he did not travel from Kūfah, nor did he enter Baghdād. For if he had entered it, many of its people would have mentioned it. Someone like him entering and narrating there, yet we find no report of it – this is far-fetched!
And the very report that al-Khaṭīb mentioned him for in his book, he did not even cite! So perhaps it was not established. And Allah knows best.
Written by: Dr. Khālid al-Ḥāyik