al-Taqassi lima fi al-Muwatta min Hadith al-Nabi = Tajrid al-Tamhid lima fi al-Muwatta min al-Ma'ani wa al-Asanid
- Author died
- 463 AH
- Editions
- Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs
al-Taqassi lima fi al-Muwatta min Hadith al-Nabi (The Thorough Investigation into What the Muwatta Contains of the Hadiths of the Prophet) is a hadith compendium by the Andalusian scholar Ibn Abd al-Barr (368–463 AH / 978–1071 CE) that gathers the prophetic traditions recorded in the Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas . It is also widely known by the alternative title Tajrid al-Tamhid lima fi al-Muwatta min al-Ma'ani wa al-Asanid (The Divesting of al-Tamhid) .
Purpose and Content
The work was composed as an abridgment and extraction of the hadiths found in Ibn Abd al-Barr's extensive commentary, al-Tamhid . It compiles the prophetic traditions contained in the Muwatta according to the recension of Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi, including fully connected (musnad), interrupted (mursal and munqati'), halted (mawquf and maqtu'), and unattributed reports (balaghat) . Ibn Abd al-Barr stripped the expansive chains of transmission and long legal debates present in al-Tamhid, accompanying each hadith with concise annotations to make the core traditions of the Muwatta accessible for memorization and study .
Structure and Method
The book is arranged alphabetically according to the names of the teachers from whom Imam Malik transmitted in the Muwatta . In organizing the entries, Ibn Abd al-Barr followed the traditional Maghribi (western Islamic) alphabetical sequence of letters rather than the Mashriqi (eastern) order . Under each narrator's entry, he lists the corresponding hadiths transmitted through them, noting their textual variants and transmission statuses .
Transmission and Reception
The book was transmitted in al-Andalus and North Africa through major scholars of the Maliki tradition. Ibn Abd al-Barr dictated the text to students such as Abu Ali al-Ghassani and Ibn Attab, from whom it passed down through chains documented by Ibn Atiyyah, Ibn Khayr al-Ishbili, and al-Qasim ibn Yusuf al-Tujibi .
Contemporary and later scholars held the work in high esteem. Abu Imran al-Fasi and Abu al-Walid al-Baji favored al-Taqassi over al-Mulakhkhas, a similar extraction of the Muwatta by al-Qabisi . Subsequent scholars composed derivative works based on it:
- Abu Abd Allah al-Ansari al-Zahiri (d. 532 AH / 1137 CE) wrote a work titled al-Taqrib li-Kitab al-Taqassi .
- Ibn Farhun (d. 769 AH) combined the narrations of al-Taqassi and al-Qabisi's al-Mulakhkhas in a compilation titled al-Durr al-Mukhallis min al-Taqassi wa-l-Mulakhkhas, which he subsequently explained in a four-volume commentary named Kashf al-Ghita fi Sharh Mukhtasar al-Muwatta .
Publications and Editorial Critiques
Early printed editions were published in Cairo under the title Tajrid al-Tamhid lima fi al-Muwatta min al-Ma'ani wa al-Asanid (Maktabat al-Qudsi, 1350 AH) and later reprinted by Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah under variants including al-Taqassi li-Hadith al-Muwatta wa-Shuyukh al-Imam Malik . Modern researchers criticized these early editions for rearranging the author's original Maghribi alphabetical order into the Mashriqi sequence, omitting standard hadith cross-referencing (takhrij), and introducing numerous misreadings and typographical errors in narrator names and texts . Later critical editions restored the original Maghribi arrangement and the title attested on manuscripts (al-Taqassi lima fi al-Muwatta min Hadith al-Nabi) .
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