al-Madkhal ila al-Sahih
- Author died
- 405 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Risala edition
al-Madkhal ila al-Sahih (The Introduction to the Sound Hadith Collections) is a work on hadith methodology and narrator criticism by the Khurasanian traditionist Abu Abd Allah al-Hakim (321–405 AH / 933–1014 CE) .
Title and Transmission
The full title given by Ibn Khayr al-Ishbili is al-Madkhal ila Ma'rifat al-Sahih min al-Saqim wa-Tabyin ma Ashkala min Asma' al-Rijal fi al-Sahihayn (The Introduction to Distinguishing the Sound from the Defective and Clarifying Ambiguities in the Names of Narrators in the Two Sahihs) . Scholars and contemporaries frequently cited it using shortened variations:
- Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi and Abu Ali al-Jayyani referred to it as al-Madkhal ila Ma'rifat al-Sahih min al-Saqim .
- Al-Hakim himself shortened the title in his Ma'rifat 'Ulum al-Hadith to al-Madkhal ila Ma'rifat al-Sahih, and in the introduction to his al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn to al-Madkhal ila al-Sahih .
- Abu Hazim al-Abdiwi named it al-Madkhal ila 'Ilm al-Sahih .
The text was transmitted directly from al-Hakim by several notable students, including al-Bayhaqi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Umar al-Muttawwi'i al-Naysaburi, Abu Uthman Ismail ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Sabuni, and Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Khalaf al-Shirazi .
Contents and Subject Matter
Al-Hakim designed the book as a foundational guide to sound narration and the methodologies of Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. In the preface to his al-Mustadrak, al-Hakim notes that in al-Madkhal he undertook a dedicated defense of al-Bukhari and Muslim against contemporary and subsequent critics who alleged that their compilations contained defective (ma'lul) narrations .
The work includes discussions on problematic names of narrators in the two Sahih collections and contains a section on criticized or impaired transmitters (al-majruhun) . A segment listing narrators individual to either al-Bukhari or Muslim—sometimes transmitted as an independent treatise titled Tasmiyat man Akhrajahum al-Bukhari wa-Muslim or Ma infarada bi-ikhrajihi kull wahid min al-imamayn—forms an integral part of al-Madkhal .
Critique and Reception
During al-Hakim's lifetime and shortly after, the work was scrutinized by fellow traditionists. The Egyptian hadith master Abd al-Ghani ibn Sa'id (d. 409 AH) authored a dedicated critique titled Kashf al-Awham allati fi Madkhal al-Hakim (Exposing the Errors in al-Hakim's Madkhal), identifying mistakes and orthographical errors (aghlāt wa-taṣḥīfāt) in biographical notices and names, while allowing that some may have stemmed from copyists or reciters .
Modern Editions
The work has been published in modern print:
- Edited by Rabee ibn Hadi al-Madkhali and published by Mu'assasat al-Risala in Beirut (1404 AH / 1984 CE) under the title al-Madkhal ila al-Sahih .
- Edited by Ibrahim ibn Ali al-Kulayb under the title al-Madkhal ila Ma'rifat al-Sahih .
Abd al-Ghani ibn Sa'id's companion critique, Kashf al-Awham, was edited by Mashhur Salman and published by Maktabat al-Manar in 1407 AH .
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