al-Jam bayn al-Sahihayn lil-Humaydi
- Author died
- 488 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn Ḥazm
al-Jamʿ bayn al-Ṣaḥīḥayn (The Combination of the Two Sahihs) is a hadith compendium by the Andalusian scholar Abu Abd Allah al-Humaydi (d. 488 AH / 1095 CE) that gathers the traditions recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim into a single unified work .
Scope and Structure
Al-Humaydi compiled the hadiths of the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections by grouping the narrations of each Companion in one place, stripping away the repetitive chains of transmission (isnād) except for the narrator transmitting directly from the Companion or where necessary for identification . The book contains a total of 3,574 hadiths .
The work is organized into five main divisions based on the musnad system (ordered by Companion narrators) :
- Masanīd of the Ten Promised Paradise: Beginning with Abu Bakr, followed by the remaining three Rashidun Caliphs, and concluding with the rest of the ten .
- Masanīd of the Preeminent Companions after the Ten: Comprising 64 Companions, opening with Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud and closing with Salama ibn al-Akwa' .
- Masanīd of the Prolific Narrators: Covering the six Companions with the largest number of narrations—Abd Allah ibn Abbas, Abd Allah ibn Umar, Jabir ibn Abd Allah, Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, Anas ibn Malik, and Abu Hurayra—which form the largest section of the work with approximately 1,797 hadiths .
- Masanīd of the Minor Narrators: Containing 41 masanīd, followed by the entries of 35 Companions whose narrations were recorded exclusively by al-Bukhari, and 55 recorded exclusively by Muslim .
- Masanīd of the Female Companions: Beginning with Aisha, followed by Fatima and the remaining wives of the Prophet, then 24 female Companions whose narrations were agreed upon by both compilers, 6 recorded solely by al-Bukhari, and 7 recorded solely by Muslim .
Within each Companion's musnad, al-Humaydi systematically divided the material into three subsections: the agreed-upon narrations (al-muttafaq ʿalayh), the exclusive narrations of al-Bukhari (afrād al-Bukhārī), and the exclusive narrations of Muslim (afrād Muslim) .
Method and Sources
In his introduction, al-Humaydi noted that he incorporated supplementary phrasings, textual completions, and explanatory additions from secondary extraction works (mustakhrajāt) and specialized critical studies on the two collections, drawing on works by scholars such as al-Daraqutni, Abu Bakr al-Isma'ili, al-Barqani, and Abu Mas'ud al-Dimashqi .
Al-Humaydi distinguished these extra elements either explicitly—by citing the core narration and specifying where the addition began and who transmitted it—or subtly, by recording the full text and identifying the specific phrase added by an author . To complement the work, he also authored a separate lexical companion, Tafsīr Gharīb Mā fī al-Ṣaḥīḥayn, explaining difficult vocabulary arranged according to the same sequence of masanīd .
Reception and Commentaries
Ibn al-Athir praised al-Humaydi's compilation in Jāmiʿ al-Uṣūl, noting that he relied upon it for quoting from the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections because of al-Humaydi's thoroughness in detailing transmission routes and collecting narrations .
Critics, however, highlighted two main aspects:
- Ibn al-Salah and Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi noted that because al-Humaydi incorporated variant phrasings and completions from mustakhrajāt, later scholars who lacked discrimination sometimes mistakenly cited these additions as belonging to the original Ṣaḥīḥayn . Commentators like Ibrahim ibn Umar al-Biqa'i defended al-Humaydi by demonstrating that he made efforts to distinguish these additions both broadly and in detail .
- Other scholars pointed out that arranging the text by masanīd rather than topical chapters departed from the method of al-Bukhari and Muslim, thereby losing the legal insights embedded in their thematic chapter headings (tarājim) .
The work received commentaries, notably al-Ifṣāḥ ʿan Maʿānī al-Ṣiḥāḥ by the Abbasid vizier Awn al-Din Ibn Hubayra (d. 560 AH), which famously digressed into an extensive comparative review of consensus and disagreement across the four Sunni legal schools . Ibn Hubayra's commentary was subsequently abridged by Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Khatir al-Nu'mani (d. 598 AH) under the title al-Ḥujjah . The book has been published in four volumes .
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