Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi

Information about his life and scholarly and creative activities can be found in the works by Taj ad-Din al-Subki (Tabaqat Ash-Shafiyya Al-kubra), al-Khatib al-Baghdad (Tarikh Baghdad), Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (Lisan al-Mizan), Sulami (Tabaqat As-Sufiyya) and in a number of other treatises.

His works touch on Kalam and Aqeedah, and he entered into rational disputation with the Mutakillimun of his era, and maintained a critical attitude of them.

Some authors, Khwaja Khalif in particular, in his Kashf as-Zunun, give the year 255 in Hijra / 869 AD as Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi's date of death.

Muslim hadith scholars report that there is a difference of opinion over his birth and death, but that he died around 280 H, having lived for 70 to 80 years.

His teacher was his father Ali bin Al-Hassan at Tirmidhi "History of Baghdad" by Khatib Al-Bagdhadi contains some information.

He visited Balkh, Nishapur, and Baghdad, where science and culture reached its zenith, and he met famous scholars and took part in discussions.

Nevertheless, Termiz, his native city played an important role in his scientific and creative activity, and there he created his basic works.

Escaping from his enemies' chase, Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi had to move to Balkh and then to Nishapur, where he was very well accepted and where he obtained a large number of followers later.

[8] Maintaining the idea that God had attributes (sifat), he is grouped confidently with the Sunnis, and he adopted a traditionist approach in his refutation of the Mu'tazila (al-Radd ala al-Mu'atillah).

[8] According to Radtke and O'Kane, "he is the first and, up until the time of Ibn al-Arabi, the only mystic author whose writings present a broad synthesis of mystic experience, anthropology, cosmology and Islamic theology... Tirmidhi's system of thought is representative of an old Islamic theosophy which had not yet consciously assimilated elements from the Aristotelian-Neoplatonic philosophic tradition.

[10] His works can be divided into six parts: Tafsir (Quranic exegesis), Hadith (prophetic tradition), Fiqh (jurisprudence), Arabic terminology, anthropology, and the theory of sainthood.