Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi
al-Mujarrad fi Asma Rijal Sunan Ibn Majah
- Author died
- 748 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Rāyah lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
al-Mujarrad fi Asma Rijal Sunan Ibn Majah (The Stripped Compendium of the Names of the Transmitters of Sunan Ibn Majah) is a biographical reference work by the Syrian hadith scholar and historian Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH / 1348 CE), cataloging the hadith transmitters in the Sunan Ibn Majah of Ibn Majah (d. 273 AH / 887 CE) .
Scope and Content
The work gathers the transmitters of Sunan Ibn Majah while excluding any narrator whose traditions were included in either of the two primary sound collections (al-Sahihayn), namely Sahih al-Bukhari by al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim by Muslim . Al-Dhahabi includes transmitters whose narrations were cited by Ibn Majah whether or not they were also cited by the compilers of the other three Sunan works (Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, and al-Nasa'i) .
In applying his exclusion criteria, al-Dhahabi included transmitters who appeared in al-Bukhari's work only in suspended chains (ta'liqan), treating them as outside al-Bukhari's primary corpus . He likewise included transmitters who appeared in Muslim's work solely within the introductory section (muqaddimah) rather than the main text .
Method and Organization
The biographical entries in the book are extremely concise . Al-Dhahabi organized the transmitters chronologically by generational classes (tabaqat), arranging the names alphabetically within each generation .
Above each biography, al-Dhahabi placed specific shorthand symbols indicating which of the four canonical Sunan compilers recorded narrations from the individual :
- (Qaf) for Ibn Majah in his Sunan.
- (Dal) for Abu Dawud in his Sunan.
- (Ta) for al-Tirmidhi in his Sunan.
- (Sin) for al-Nasa'i, restricted strictly to his minor collection (al-Sunan al-Sughra), omitting the symbol if the narrator appeared only in his major collection (al-Sunan al-Kubra) or his 'Amal al-Yawm wa-l-Laylah .
Scholarly Significance
The compendium is distinguished by preserving critical evaluations of transmitters (jarh wa-ta'dil) by al-Dhahabi that do not appear in his other biographical writings . In numerous instances, al-Dhahabi delivers an explicit verdict—such as declaring a narrator unknown (majhul), obscure (juhhil or mastur), lenient in hadith (layyin), an unexceptional transmitter (shaykh or suwaylih), or truthful (sadiq)—where he remained silent in al-Kashif, gave no verdict in Tarikh al-Islam, or omitted the narrator entirely from works like Mizan al-I'tidal .
Manuscripts and Publication
Manuscript copies of the work are preserved in libraries such as the Zahiriyyah Library in Damascus, the Vatican Library, and the Central Library in Riyadh . The work was edited by Basim Faysal al-Jawabirah and published by Dar al-Rayah in Riyadh in 1409 AH (1988 CE) . Because the primary manuscript copy was missing a middle section containing generations seven through ten, the editor appended a supplementary section (mustadrak) to reconstruct the missing entries .
Answer updated