al-Musannaf - Abd al-Razzaq
- Author died
- 211 AH
- Editions
- Ta al-Tasil al-Thaniya · t. al-Azami
al-Musannaf is an early hadith collection compiled by the Yemeni traditionist Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanani (126–211 AH / 744–826 CE), comprising prophetic traditions alongside the legal verdicts and statements of the Companions and Successors arranged topically according to the chapters of Islamic jurisprudence .
Scope and Structure
The work belongs to the musannaf genre, which is arranged by thematic legal chapters (kutub and abwab) and contains marfu' (attributed to the Prophet), mawquf (attributed to the Companions), and maqtu' (attributed to the Successors and their followers) reports with their full chains of transmission (isnad) . The collection opens with the "Book of Purification" (Kitab al-Taharah), followed by the "Book of Menstruation" (Kitab al-Hayd) and the "Book of Prayer" (Kitab al-Salah), proceeding through legal topics and concluding with Kitab al-Jami' ("The Comprehensive Book"), which gathers assorted subjects not fitting under specific legal headings . In the edition numbered by Habib al-Rahman al-Azami, the work contains 21,023 narrations (recorded in another enumeration as 21,033), with the final volume and part of the tenth consisting of Kitab al-Jami' of Mamar ibn Rashid as transmitted by Abd al-Razzaq .
Sources and Method
Abd al-Razzaq drew upon 176 direct teachers in the collection . The vast majority of the narrations derive from three principal authorities:
- Ma'mar ibn Rashid, from whom Abd al-Razzaq recorded 8,415 narrations .
- Ibn Jurayj, accounting for 5,106 narrations .
- Sufyan al-Thawri, accounting for 4,671 narrations .
The primary transmitter of al-Musannaf was the Yemeni scholar Ishaq ibn Ibrahim al-Dabari (b. 195 AH / d. 285 AH), whose father brought him to hear Abd al-Razzaq's works in 210 AH during his youth .
Scholarly Standing and Reception
Scholars regarded al-Musannaf as one of the earliest and most comprehensive compendiums of legal traditions and non-prophetic reports. Ibn Hazm ranked al-Musannaf alongside Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah in the tier of works combining prophetic traditions with non-prophetic reports, noting its preeminence within that category . Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi and Ibn Taymiyyah categorized it among the legal compendiums that unite musnad (fully attributed) and non-musnad traditions . Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti cited it as a primary reference for locating mawquf and maqtu' traditions .
While the collection is prized for the elevation of its chains (uluww al-isnad), it contains weak as well as sound narrations, and some scholars noted that transmitters who heard from Abd al-Razzaq after he lost his sight late in life received compromised narrations compared to his written texts .
Publication History
The work was first edited by Habib al-Rahman al-A'zami and published in eleven volumes by al-Majlis al-Ilmi, with publication commencing in 1390 AH / 1970 CE (and completed in 1392 AH) . Subsequent critical editions include that prepared by Dar al-Ta'sil, issued in a second edition in 1437 AH / 2016 CE .
Answer updated