al-Muntakhab min Hadith Shuyukh Baghdad
- Author died
- 745 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Nawadir
al-Muntakhab min Hadith Shuyukh Baghdad (The Selection from the Hadith of the Teachers of Baghdad) is a hadith biographical selection compiled by the Andalusian grammarian and scholar Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi (d. 745 AH / 1344 CE), abridging a four-part collection of Baghdadi teachers gathered by the hadith master Abu al-Ala al-Faradi (d. 700 AH / 1300 CE) .
Origin and Transmission
The underlying source of the work was a compilation spanning four fascicles (ajza') assembled by Abu al-Ala al-Faradi from the narrations of his Baghdadi teachers . That original collection was extracted and indexed (kharrajahu) for al-Faradi by the hadith master Jamal al-Din Ibn al-Zahiri (d. 696 AH / 1297 CE), whose own handwriting constituted the original manuscript .
Abu Hayyan's selection superseded Ibn al-Zahiri's technical contributions, with Ibn al-Zahiri's name appearing only once within the text under the entry for Abd al-Hamid ibn Fakhkhar . At the conclusion of the book, Abu Hayyan explained his purpose for compiling the selection: documenting his transmission links to these Baghdadi scholars through direct audition (sama') by reading the original work to al-Faradi, as well as through formal authorization (ijaza) secured from them on his behalf by al-Faradi . In the margins of his copy, Abu Hayyan also supplemented the text by adding a number of non-Baghdadi scholars who had likewise granted him an ijaza upon al-Faradi's petition .
Structure and Methodology
The work omits an explanatory introduction by Abu Hayyan as well as any preface from al-Faradi's original, proceeding directly into the biographical entries . Abu Hayyan arranged the scholars alphabetically, placing those named Muhammad first, followed by those named Ahmad, before the remainder of the alphabetical sequence .
Rather than focusing on late hadith technicalities—such as evaluating elevated and dropped chains of transmission (al-'uluww wa-al-nuzul) or tracing parallel transmissions (al-muwafaqat wa-al-musafahat)—Abu Hayyan aimed to preserve the identities of the teachers along with representative samples of their narrations . Under each biography, he typically cited a prophetic hadith, a non-prophetic report (athar), or lines of poetry, occasionally providing more than one narration for a single teacher . In total, the selection records 104 teachers from Baghdad and elsewhere .
Significance and Manuscript
The collection documents scholarly activity and the revival of learning in Baghdad in the aftermath of the Mongol conquest of Baghdad, depicting al-Faradi navigating the city's mosques, madrasas, and neighborhoods to study under its resident jurists, traditionists, and literati .
An autograph manuscript of the text survives in the Jarullah Efendi collection in Istanbul (MS 2132/2, folios 16–43) . The work was edited and published by Riyad Husayn al-Ta'i al-Baghdadi .
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