al-Ruwat an Malik lil-Rashid al-Attar
- Author died
- 662 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Ghurabā’ al-Athariyyah
al-Ruwat ʿan Malik (Arabic: الرواة عن مالك, often titled Mujarrad Asmāʾ al-Ruwāt ʿan Mālik) is a biographical reference work by the hadith scholar al-Rashid al-Attar (584–662 AH / 1188–1264 CE), compiling the names and details of transmitters who related hadiths from Imam Malik ibn Anas.
Background and Purpose
The book is an abridgment (tajrīd) of the extensive biographical compilation al-Ruwāt ʿan Mālik written by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 463 AH). In his original work, al-Khatib cataloged hundreds of transmitters who studied under or transmitted from Malik, providing full chains of transmission (asānīd) under each entry to prove that the individual narrated from him. Al-Rashid al-Attar condensed al-Khatib’s book by stripping out these extended chains, focusing directly on the names, identities, and relevant biographical notes.
Structure and Methodology
The compilation is organized alphabetically by the transmitters' given names, beginning with those named Ahmad and Ibrahim under the letter alif.
In addition to abridging al-Khatib's entries, al-Attar enriched the work with his own critical annotations and supplements (istidrākāt), supplying transmitters who were omitted from al-Khatib's original survey. For several of these supplemental figures, he cited hadiths and narrations preserved in other classical works that have since been lost.
Reception and Preservation
Because al-Khatib al-Baghdadi's original al-Ruwāt ʿan Mālik is not known to have survived, al-Attar's abridgment has served as a primary intermediate source through which later scholars—including Ibn al-Mulaqqin in al-Badr al-Munīr and al-Suyuti in al-Laʾālī al-Maṣnūʿah—cited and preserved al-Khatib's material.
The work has been published under the title Mujarrad Asmāʾ al-Ruwāt ʿan Mālik, edited by Salim ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Hadi al-Salafi and issued by Maktabat al-Ghuraba' al-Athariyya in Medina in 1418 AH (1997 CE).
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