Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
al-Matalib al-Aliya Muhaqqaqan
- Author died
- 852 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-ʿĀṣimah lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ
al-Matalib al-Aliya bi-Zawa'id al-Masanid al-Thamaniyya (The Lofty Demands on the Unique Additions of the Eight Musnads) is a hadith compendium by the Egyptian Shafi'i scholar Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (773–852 AH / 1372–1449 CE) dedicated to gathering supplementary hadiths from earlier musnad collections .
Title and Purpose
Ibn Hajar explicitly named the work al-Matalib al-Aliya bi-Zawa'id al-Masanid al-Thamaniyya, a title confirmed by his biographers al-Sakhawi and Ibn Fahd al-Makki, as well as extant manuscripts . Variant phrasings appear in later bibliographical works, such as al-Matalib al-Aliya bi-Riwayat al-Masanid al-Thamaniyya in Kashf al-Zunun and Shadharat al-Dhahab, al-Matalib al-Galiya in al-Qala'id al-Jawhariyya, and al-Matalib al-Aliyya fi Zawa'id al-Masanid al-Thamaniyya in al-Risala al-Mustatrafa .
In his introduction, Ibn Hajar stated that he originally intended to compile all hadiths he had accessed into a single comprehensive reference work . He subsequently revised his scope, choosing instead to collect hadiths preserved in musnad works that contained additions (zawa'id) not found in the primary collections, defining the primary sources as the Six Books (the Kutub al-Sitta) and the Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal .
Sources
The core of the book consists of the unique additions extracted from eight early musnads that Ibn Hajar possessed in full with complete chains of transmission :
- Musnad Abi Dawud al-Tayalisi (d. 204 AH)
- Musnad al-Humaydi (d. 219 AH)
- Musnad Musaddad ibn Musarhad (d. 228 AH), along with minor narrations added by its transmitter Mu'adh ibn al-Muthanna (d. 288 AH)
- Musnad Ibn Abi Umar al-Adani (d. 243 AH)
- Musnad Ahmad ibn Mani' (d. 244 AH)
- Musnad Abi Bakr ibn Abi Shayba (d. 235 AH)
- Musnad Abd ibn Humayd (d. 249 AH)
- Musnad al-Harith ibn Abi Usama (d. 282 AH)
Beyond these eight, Ibn Hajar incorporated additions from two further collections: the portions he possessed of Musnad Ishaq ibn Rahawayh (amounting to roughly half the work), and the omissions of his teacher Nur al-Din al-Haythami from Musnad Abi Ya'la al-Mawsili (d. 307 AH) . Al-Haythami had relied on the shorter transmission of Ibn Hamdan, so Ibn Hajar supplemented it using the longer recension of Abu Bakr ibn al-Muqri' . He also had access to fragments of other collections, such as the musnads of al-Hasan ibn Sufyan and al-Ruyani, but intended to return to their additions after completing his fair copy .
Structure and Editions
Ibn Hajar rearranged the material from the companion-based musnad order into thematic chapters on legal rulings (kutub al-ahkam), following an arrangement close to that of Majma' al-Zawa'id and Ithaf al-Khiyara al-Mahara .
The work has been preserved in two manuscript traditions: an abridged version stripped of chains of transmission, which was published by Habib al-Rahman al-A'zami, and a complete version retaining full isnads .
A multi-editor edition of the complete version was carried out as seventeen academic dissertations submitted to the College of Usul al-Din at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, coordinated by Sa'd ibn Nasir al-Shathri, and published in nineteen volumes by Dar al-Asima and Dar al-Ghayth in Riyadh (1419 AH / 1998 CE) based on eight manuscripts . Another edition, prepared by Abu Bilal Ghunaym ibn Abbas and Abu Tamim Yasir ibn Ibrahim based on three manuscripts, was published in Riyadh by Dar al-Watan .
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