al-Fawaid al-Shahir bil-Ghilaniyat li-Abi Bakr al-Shafii
- Author died
- 354 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn al-Jawzī
al-Fawaid al-Shahir bil-Ghilaniyat (Arabic: الفوائد الشهير بالغيلانيات, lit. 'The Hadith Benefits Famous as the Ghilaniyat') is an eleven-part hadith collection of narrations by the Iraqi hadith scholar Abu Bakr al-Shafii (260–354 AH / 874–965 CE), extracted and compiled by al-Daraqutni .
Compilation and Naming
The work consists of selected hadith narrations transmitted by Abu Bakr al-Shafii that were extracted and organized (takhrij) by the hadith master al-Daraqutni . The collection represents the precise corpus of transmissions heard directly from Abu Bakr al-Shafii by his student Abu Talib Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Ghaylan al-Bazzaz (346–440 AH), after whom the work acquired its common title, al-Ghilaniyat . Another report places Ibn Ghaylan's death in 404 AH .
Structure and Scope
Al-Ghilaniyat comprises eleven fascicles (ajza') typically bound in a single volume . It gathers elevated transmissions ('awali) and rare reports (ghara'ib) narrated through Abu Bakr al-Shafii's chains of transmission back to early authorities, including traditions transmitted through the Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas . The hadith master Abu al-Hajjaj al-Mizzi arranged Abu Bakr al-Shafii's teachers alphabetically, restricting his biographical index specifically to those authorities from whom transmissions appear in al-Ghilaniyat .
Reception and Transmission
Hadith scholars regarded al-Ghilaniyat as being among the highest in elevation of chains (isnad) and finest in quality among specialized hadith booklets (al-ajza' al-hadithiyya) . Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi noted that missing the transmission of al-Ghilaniyat lowered a traditionist's chain by an entire degree .
The last authority to transmit the collection with an elevated chain was Abu Hafs Umar ibn Tabarzad (516–607 AH), who narrated it with only two intermediaries between himself and Abu Bakr al-Shafii: through Abu al-Qasim ibn al-Husayn from Abu Talib ibn Ghaylan . Later scholars such as Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd al-Salam, Abd al-Mumin ibn Khalaf al-Dimyati, and Ibn Kathir studied and transmitted the text in full through chains extending back to Abu Bakr al-Shafii .
Answer updated