Amali Abi Bakr al-Najjad
- Author died
- 348 AH
- Editions
- Manuscript published in the free program Jawāmiʿ al-Kalim affiliated with the Islamweb website
Amali Abi Bakr al-Najjad (The Dictations of Abu Bakr al-Najjad) is a collection of hadith dictation sessions delivered by the Iraqi Hanbali jurist and traditionist Abu Bakr al-Najjad (253–348 AH / 867–960 CE) . The text brings together prophetic traditions transmitted with full chains of narration that al-Najjad dictated to students in Baghdad .
Background and Context
Al-Najjad held two regular teaching assemblies at the Mosque of al-Mansur in Baghdad on Fridays: one before prayer for issuing legal rulings according to the Hanbali school, and another after prayer dedicated to the dictation of hadith (imla'), occupying the teaching circle formerly held by Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal . His dictation sessions attracted such large gatherings of scholars and students that two doors of the mosque adjacent to his circle were reportedly shut due to the crowding . Recorded sessions date to various periods of his teaching career, including a documented dictation held on Friday, 4 Jumada al-Akhirah 345 AH .
Transmission and Structure
The Amali has reached posterity primarily in discrete fascicles (ajza') comprising individual or multiple dictation sessions (majalis), preserved across multiple lines of transmission by direct disciples :
- Recension of Ibn Bishran: Transmitted by Abu al-Qasim 'Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Bishran al-Wa'iz, encompassing five sessions (khamsat majalis), which were later related down through Shuhdah al-Katibah and Abd al-Mu'min al-Dimyati .
- Recension of Ibn Makhlad: Transmitted by Abu al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Makhlad al-Bazzar, containing single sessions as well as a four-session part transmitted through Abu Tahir al-Silafi .
- Recension of al-Mahamili: Transmitted by Abu 'Abd Allah Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allah ibn al-Husayn al-Mahamili, preserved as an individual session (majlis) that entered the transmission of al-Silafi .
- Recension of Ibn Dust: Transmitted by Abu 'Amr 'Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Dust al-'Allaf under the title al-Fawa'id al-Muntaqat min Amali al-Najjad .
Later bibliographers and traditionists, including Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, recorded transmissions of distinct three-, four-, and five-session parts identified by their opening hadiths, such as the narration of Abu Musa al-Ashari on cupping and fasting, and the narration of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas on illness and visitation . Manuscript copies of these various assemblies survive in collections such as the 'Umariyya manuscripts at the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus .
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