al-Khulasa fi Marifat al-Hadith
- Author died
- 743 AH
- Editions
- Al-Maktabah al-Islāmiyyah lil-Nashr wal-Tawzī‘ - Al-Ruwād lil-I‘lām wal-Nashr
al-Khulasa fi Marifat al-Hadith (The Epitome in the Knowledge of Hadith) is a manual on Hadith terminology and sciences by al-Tibi (d. 743 AH / 1342 CE) .
Sources and Composition
Al-Tibi composed the work as a refined synthesis of key earlier manuals on the terminology and classifications of Hadith, specifically intended for students and transmitters of tradition . He drew primarily upon three core texts:
- The foundational work Maʿrifat Anwāʿ ʿIlm al-Ḥadīth (popularly known as Muqaddimat Ibn al-Salah) by Ibn al-Salah (d. 643 AH) .
- The abridgment al-Taqrib wa-l-Taysir by al-Nawawi (d. 676 AH) .
- Al-Manhal al-Rawi by Ibn Jama'ah (d. 733 AH) .
To these abridgments he integrated significant supplementary material from Ibn al-Athir's Jami al-Usul and other references . The author arranged the book into an introduction (muqaddimah), core divisions (maqasid, described in bibliographical tradition as four chapters), and a conclusion (khatimah) .
Title and Reception
While the author explicitly designated the title in his opening text as al-Khulasa fi Marifat al-Hadith, the work is also recorded in biographical dictionaries and manuscript covers under the title al-Khulasa fi Usul al-Hadith .
The text served as a basis for later scholarship and abridgments:
- Al-Sharif al-Jurjani (d. 816 AH) wrote a widely circulated abridgment (and supercommentary) based upon it, commonly titled Mukhtasar al-Jurjani (or al-Mukhtasar fi Usul al-Hadith) .
- Jalal al-Din al-Qayini (d. 838 AH) summarized its material in his treatise Ishraqat al-Usul fi Ilm Hadith al-Rasul .
- Muhammad Abd al-Hayy al-Laknawi (d. 1304 AH) composed an extensive commentary on al-Jurjani's abridgment titled Zafar al-Amani bi-Sharh Mukhtasar al-Jurjani and cited al-Tibi's work in his al-Raf wa-l-Takmil .
- Prominent later traditionists, including Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti in Tadrib al-Rawi and al-San'ani in Tawdih al-Afkar, cited and transmitted passages from al-Khulasa .
Manuscripts and Modern Editions
Surviving manuscripts of the treatise include copies preserved at the Hagia Sophia library (transcribed during al-Tibi's lifetime), al-Azhar Library (dated 883 AH), and Markaz Wadood .
The work has been published in several modern editions:
- Edited by Subhi al-Samarra'i under the title al-Khulasa fi Usul al-Hadith (Baghdad: Ri'asat Diwan al-Awqaf, 1391 AH / 1971 CE; reissued by Dar Alam al-Kutub) .
- Edited by Abu Asim al-Shawami al-Athari under the author's title al-Khulasa fi Marifat al-Hadith (Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Islamiyyah, 1430 AH / 2009 CE), based on the al-Azhar, Markaz Wadood, and Hagia Sophia manuscripts .
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