al-Tawshih Sharh al-Jami al-Sahih
- Author died
- 911 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Rushd
al-Tawshih Sharh al-Jami al-Sahih (also known as al-Tawshih 'ala al-Jami' al-Sahih) is a concise commentary on al-Bukhari's Sahih composed by the Egyptian Shafi'i scholar Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE) .
Purpose and Method
In his introduction, al-Suyuti explains that he modeled the work on the commentary of Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi, titled al-Tanqih . He structured it as a compact marginal gloss (ta'liq) designed to provide the reader and listener of Sahih al-Bukhari with essential textual and linguistic clarifications without burdening them with lengthy legal extrapolations (istinbat) .
The commentary systematically addresses specific textual aspects of the hadiths, including:
- Fixing the exact vocalization and pronunciation of difficult words (dabt al-alfaz) .
- Defining rare or obscure vocabulary (tafsir al-gharib) .
- Documenting textual variations among different transmissions and manuscripts of the Sahih .
- Supplementing narrations with additional context or text variants not transmitted through al-Bukhari's specific chains .
- Identifying chapter headings that were worded after an existing marfu' hadith .
- Providing continuous transmission chains for suspended or truncated narrations (wasl al-ta'liq) left unconnected within the Sahih .
- Identifying unnamed figures (mubhamat) in the isnads and matns .
- Clarifying difficult grammatical constructions (i'rab al-mushkil) .
- Reconciling seemingly contradictory narrations (al-jam' bayna al-mukhtalif) .
Al-Suyuti noted his ambition to write similar concise commentaries for all Six Books of hadith in this format to facilitate easy access to key textual data .
Sources and Related Works
In compiling al-Tawshih, al-Suyuti drew heavily on earlier commentaries, relying extensively on excerpts from Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's Fath al-Bari alongside lexical and grammatical sources . Haji Khalifa noted in Kashf al-Zunun that al-Suyuti also began another commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari entitled al-Tarshih, which remained incomplete . An anonymous supercommentary on al-Tawshih is preserved in manuscript form in Berlin .
Transmission and Publication
The work survives in numerous manuscript collections across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Turkey, Yemen, Germany, Russia, and India . al-Tawshih has been edited by Ridwan Jami' Ridwan and published in ten volumes by Maktabat al-Rushd in Riyadh (1419 AH / 1998 CE) .
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