Arus al-Ajza
- Author died
- 562 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Bashāʼir al-Islāmīyah
Arus al-Ajza (عروس الأجزاء) is a three-part hadith compilation transmitted by the Persian traditionist Abu al-Faraj Mas'ud ibn al-Hasan al-Thaqafi (d. 562 AH / 1166 CE) and compiled from his narrations and teachers.
Compilation and Transmission
The collection was extracted (kharrajahu) for Abu al-Faraj al-Thaqafi by the traditionist Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jarbādhqānī, who read it before him in Isfahan in 557 AH.
The text was subsequently transmitted through several scholars:
- Diya' al-Din Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Qarakula'i al-Amili al-Tabari (known as Imam al-Malik al-Nasir), from whom Abd al-Rahman ibn Hamdan ibn Ahmad al-Kinani al-Tikriti heard the work.
- Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Isbahani, who heard the work from al-Thaqafi in Isfahan in 560 AH and later read it to the Andalusian scholar Ibn Musdi.
A manuscript of the work was formally endowed (waqf) for Muslims and preserved at al-Madrasa al-Diya'iyya at the foot of Mount Qasiyun.
Structure and Content
The work consists of three distinct parts (ajza') comprising hadiths arranged with full chains of transmission (asānīd) going back through al-Thaqafi's teachers—such as Abu al-Husayn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Naqqur al-Baghdadi and Abu al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Ubaydallah ibn al-Muhtadi Billah—to early authorities including Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi.
Manuscripts and Publication
A manuscript covering all three parts (fols. 126–141) is preserved in Damascus at the Zahiriyya Library (MS 3754 - 17). The work was edited by Muhammad Sabah Mansur and published in a single volume by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyya in Beirut in 1424 AH / 2003 CE.
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