al-Jami al-Saghir wa Ziyadatuhu
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- 911 AH
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- al-Jami al-Saghir wa Ziyadatuhu
al-Jami al-Saghir wa Ziyadatuhu (The Small Collection and Its Supplement) is a hadith compendium by the Egyptian scholar al-Jalal al-Suyuti (849–911 AH / 1445–1505 CE), gathering concise verbal prophetic traditions arranged alphabetically by their opening words .
Composition and Structure
Al-Suyuti composed al-Jami al-Saghir min Hadith al-Bashir al-Nadhir as an abridgment of the verbal sayings (aqwal) section of his larger compendium, Jam' al-Jawami' (also known as al-Jami al-Kabir) . He completed al-Jami al-Saghir on 18 Rabi' al-Awwal 907 AH, assembling 10,031 hadiths . Observing traditions that he had omitted, he subsequently authored a supplementary volume titled Ziyadat al-Jami' (or Ziyadat al-Jami al-Saghir), which added 4,440 hadiths, following the same arrangement and methodology as the original work .
The compilation is organized alphabetically according to the initial letter of each hadith text to facilitate reference . Al-Suyuti omitted full transmission chains (isnad), citing only the companion narrator and employing single- or multi-letter abbreviations (rumuz) to indicate the primary source collections (such as kha for al-Bukhari, mim for Muslim, qaf for traditions agreed upon by both, and hamza-mim for Ahmad's Musnad) . He also affixed symbols to designate the authenticity of non-canonical traditions: sad for authentic (sahih), ha for fair (hasan), and dad for weak (da'if) . In his introduction, al-Suyuti stated that he aimed to protect the work from traditions reported exclusively by known fabricators or liars .
Integration and Rearrangements
Because al-Suyuti did not integrate the supplement directly into the text of the main collection during his lifetime, later scholars synthesized his works :
- Ali al-Muttaqi al-Hindi (d. 975 AH / 985 AH) combined al-Suyuti's three collections (al-Jami al-Kabir, al-Jami al-Saghir, and Ziyadat al-Jami') and reorganized them topically by legal chapters in his work Kanz al-Ummal .
- Yusuf al-Nabhani (d. 1350 AH) merged al-Jami al-Saghir and Ziyadat al-Jami' into a single alphabetical sequence titled al-Fath al-Kabir fi Damm al-Ziyadah ila al-Jami al-Saghir, containing a total of 14,471 hadiths, marking traditions from the supplement with the letter zay .
Commentaries
Al-Jami al-Saghir attracted numerous scholarly commentaries, including:
- al-Kawkab al-Munir by Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn al-Alqami (d. 929 AH / 969 AH), in two volumes .
- al-Istidrak al-Nadir by Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Matbuli (d. 1003 AH), which expanded upon omissions in al-Alqami's work .
- A commentary by Ali al-Qari (d. 1014 AH) .
- Fayd al-Qadir by Abd al-Ra'uf al-Munawi (d. 1031 AH), a detailed multi-volume exposition in which the commentator critically evaluated al-Suyuti's gradings and citations; al-Munawi subsequently abridged it under the title al-Taysir .
- al-Siraj al-Munir by Ali al-Azizi (d. 1070 AH), in four volumes, which was later glossed by Muhammad ibn Salim al-Hafni .
- al-Tanwir Sharh al-Jami al-Saghir by Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-San'ani .
Reception and Critical Studies
Despite al-Suyuti's stated aim to avoid fabricated reports, later hadith scholars observed that numerous weak and fabricated (mawdu') traditions were incorporated into the text, some of which al-Suyuti himself had declared fabricated in his other writings . Commentators like al-Munawi also pointed out that scribal errors frequently distorted the symbolic grades in manuscript transmissions .
Subsequent scholars undertook critical reassessments of the collection:
- Ahmad ibn al-Siddiq al-Ghumari authored al-Mughir 'ala al-Ahadith al-Mawdu'ah fi al-Jami al-Saghir, identifying fabricated entries .
- Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Ghumari compiled al-Kanz al-Thamin fi Ahadith al-Nabi al-Amin, presenting al-Jami al-Saghir stripped of fabricated traditions and augmented with sound reports .
- Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the merged text in al-Fath al-Kabir, dividing it into two published works: Sahih al-Jami al-Saghir wa Ziyadatuhu (containing 8,058 authentic and fair hadiths) and Da'if al-Jami al-Saghir wa Ziyadatuhu (containing 6,469 weak traditions, including approximately 980 judged as fabricated) .
Publication History
Al-Jami al-Saghir was printed for the first time in Marseille in 1268 AH and later at the Amiri Press in Cairo in 1286 AH, after which it saw numerous printings across the Muslim world .
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