al-Arbaun ala al-Tabaqat li Ali ibn al-Mufaddal al-Maqdisi
- Author died
- 611 AH
- Editions
- Adwa' al-Salaf
Al-Arba'un ala al-Tabaqat (The Forty [Hadiths] Arranged by the Tabaqat of the Forty), formally titled Kitab al-Arba'in al-murattabah ala tabaqat al-arba'in, is a hadith collection compiled by the Maliki hadith scholar Ali ibn al-Mufaddal al-Maqdisi (544–611 AH / 1149–1214 CE).
Structure and Methodology
The work contains forty hadiths transmitted from forty early hadith masters who were noted for their involvement in hadith transmission, critical evaluation of narrators (al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil), and hadith authentication. Al-Maqdisi arranged the collection across ten generational classes (tabaqat), selecting four trustworthy hadith masters from each era. The tiers are structured so that scholars of each subsequent generation received their narrations directly from the preceding one in continuous chronological sequence. The first generational tier opens with biographical and transmission details for authorities including Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri.
Transmission and Publication
The text was read to al-Maqdisi in Cairo at al-Madrasah al-Sahibiyyah. It was transmitted on his authority by Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Shuja' ibn Dirgham al-Qurashi and heard by Abd al-Ghaffar ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Kafi al-Sa'di. The text was edited by Muhammad Salim ibn Muhammad ibn Jum'an al-Abbadi as a master's thesis completed at Umm al-Qura University under the supervision of Muwaffaq ibn Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Qadir, and was published in a first edition by Adwa' al-Salaf.
Answer updated