al-Nihaya fi Ittisal al-Riwaya
- Author died
- 909 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Nawādir
al-Nihaya fi Ittisal al-Riwaya (The Utmost in the Continuity of Transmission) is a work on hadith transmission chains (asānīd) and scholars' records (thabat) by the Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Mubarrad (841–909 AH / 1437–1503 CE; also reported as b. 840 AH) . The book compiles his connected chains of transmission leading back to prominent figures and well-known authors and works .
Scope and Content
The author compiled the work to document his continuous links of transmission to earlier authorities . It includes chains going back to prophets, Companions, Successors, Quran reciters, exegetes, hadith scholars, jurists, literary figures, sages, poets, judges, and righteous figures . For each individual, he records his connected chain reaching them and cites a hadith report, tradition (athar), anecdote, or lines of poetry transmitted through that path .
The book begins with his transmission connected to God, followed by Gabriel from God, and the Prophet ﷺ from Gabriel from God . It also records his transmission of widely circulated collections of hadith, including Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, the Sunan of Abu Dawud, the Sunan of al-Tirmidhi, the Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, as well as various lexicons (maʿājim), musnads, sunan collections, and specialized hadith booklets (ajzāʾ) . Furthermore, it names a group of his teachers from whom he received transmission either through direct audition (samāʿ) or license (ijāza), making it an important source for identifying the masters he studied under . In its edited version, the work contains 472 numbered narrations .
Manuscripts and Publication
The work survived in a unique holograph manuscript in the author's own handwriting, preserved at the Egyptian National Library and Archives in Cairo (under no. 222 - mustalah - Taymur) comprising 96 folios . The manuscript concludes with reading certificates (samāʿāt) written in the author's hand as well as that of his student, Yusuf ibn Ahmad ibn al-Saydawi al-Ba'li . It was published in a single volume in 2011 (1432 AH) by Dar al-Nawadir, prepared by a team of editors under the supervision of Nur al-Din Talib .
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