al-Mudraj ila al-Mudraj
- Author died
- 911 AH
- Editions
- al-Dar al-Salafiyyah
Al-Mudraj ila al-mudraj (The Path to the Interpolated) is a specialized treatise on hadith terminology and criticism by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE), focusing specifically on identifying interpolations within the texts of prophetic traditions.
Background and Composition
The work forms part of a lineage of monographs devoted to interpolated hadiths (al-hadith al-mudraj). The earliest dedicated compilation on the subject was al-Fasl li-l-wasl al-mudraj fi al-naql by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 463 AH / 1071 CE), which was subsequently rearranged and expanded by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 AH / 1449 CE) in his treatise Taqrib al-manhaj bi-tartib al-mudraj.
Al-Suyuti composed his treatise as an abridgment of Ibn Hajar's work. In his introduction, he noted the title's precise vocalization as al-Madraj (with an a on the first mīm) ilā al-Mudraj (with an u on the second mīm) and explained the rationale for his editorial choices: he restricted the work exclusively to interpolations occurring within the text (mudraj al-matn) rather than the chain of transmission (mudraj al-isnad), arguing that distinguishing the words of narrators from prophetic speech is of paramount importance.
Scope and Methodology
Al-Suyuti omitted chains of transmission to maintain brevity, and in exchange for omitting chain-level interpolations, he incorporated supplementary instances of textual interpolations documented across the works of critical hadith scholars that were missing from Ibn Hajar's collection.
The treatise encompasses seventy hadiths in total. While textual interpolations most frequently occur at the end of a narration, the treatise documents twelve cases occurring in the middle of a text; nine of these medial interpolations represent al-Suyuti's own additions, seven of which he extracted from Ibn Hajar's commentary Fath al-Bari.
Manuscripts, Editions, and Adaptations
Al-Suyuti listed the treatise among his writings in his autobiographical and bibliographical records, including Husn al-muhadara. Surviving manuscript copies include a seven-folio copy preserved at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya (no. 1885 Hadith) and another at Istanbul University (Majmu' no. 1461).
The text was edited by Subhi al-Samarra'i and published by al-Dar al-Salafiyya in Kuwait as a thirty-page booklet, though critics noted numerous typographical errors and textual corruptions in that edition. The Moroccan scholar Abd al-Aziz al-Ghumari rearranged al-Suyuti's material according to musnad order (by companion narrators) and appended seventeen additional narrations, bringing the total to eighty-eight hadiths; he published this expanded version under the title Tashil al-madraj ila al-mudraj with Dar al-Basa'ir in Damascus in 1403 AH (1982 CE).
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