The hadith master whose Sunan is among the six canonical Sunni collections, esteemed for the strictness of its criteria.
Life
Al-Nasai (829–915) compiled the Sunan al-Sughra ("al-Mujtaba"), noted for particularly rigorous standards in selecting authentic traditions, and one of the six canonical books of Sunni hadith. Tradition holds he died after being assaulted for a work in praise of Ali that displeased partisans in Damascus — an episode variously reported in the sources. His collection remains a pillar of hadith scholarship.