Jami al-Tahsil fi Ahkam al-Marasil
- Author died
- 761 AH
- Editions
- 'Alam al-Kutub
Jami al-Tahsil fi Ahkam al-Marasil (The Comprehensive Attainment on the Rulings of Hurried Hadiths) is a specialized hadith work by the Shafi'i scholar Salah al-Din al-Alai (694–761 AH / 1295–1359 CE), dedicated to the study of broken chains of transmission (inqita'), hurried reports (marasil), concealed omissions, and the rulings governing their legal and methodological validity .
Composition
Al-Alai began compiling the work in mid-Sha'ban 746 AH and completed it on Sunday, 5 Shawwal 746 AH, in Jerusalem . The book was read directly to the author during his lifetime in Jerusalem, including by his student Ibn al-Mulaqqin .
Structure and Content
The work is organized into a theoretical introductory treatise followed by an alphabetical biographical dictionary:
- Theoretical Introduction: Al-Alai provides the linguistic and technical definitions of mursal (hurried), mu'dal (perplexing/doubly omitted), and munqati' (disconnected), and details the differing perspectives of hadith critics and jurists . He discusses the scholarly dispute regarding using mursal reports as legal proof (al-ihtijaj bihi), outlining the arguments of proponents and opponents before selecting his preferred position . He examines transmitters who reported only from trustworthy figures, corroborative evidence for mursal narrations, the isolated view of Ibn Burhan, and the position of Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni . The theoretical section also addresses narrators who transmit from figures they never met, the rules of deceptive omission (tadlis), the five ranks of mudallis narrators, performance terminology (alfaz al-ada'), and four distinct methods for detecting subtly hidden disconnections (al-mursal al-khafi) .
- Biographical Dictionary: A comprehensive dictionary listing individual narrators whose transmissions were judged by classical critics to contain disconnections or omissions (irsal), arranged alphabetically .
Reception and Related Works
Jami al-Tahsil became a standard reference in the field of transmission defects and broken chains . Later scholars authored glosses and derivative works based on it:
- Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi and Sibt Ibn al-Ajami (Burhan al-Din al-Halabi) both authored marginalia (hawashi) on the text .
- Abu Zur'a al-Iraqi compiled Tuhfat al-Tahsil fi Dhikr Ruwat al-Marasil, extracting and reorganizing the biographical entries from al-Alai's Jami al-Tahsil and Ibn Abi Hatim's Kitab al-Marasil, alongside his own additions .
Manuscripts and Editions
Manuscripts of the text are preserved in the Raghib Pasha Library in Istanbul (MS 236), the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (MS 405), and the al-Madrasa al-Qadiriyya Library in Baghdad . The Baghdad manuscript comprises 109 folios and contains a reading note signed by al-Alai .
The book was edited as a master's thesis by Omar Hasan Fallatah at King Abdulaziz University in Mecca in 1391 AH . It was subsequently edited by Hamdi Abd al-Majid al-Salafi, first published in Baghdad in 1398 AH and later in Beirut in 1407 AH / 1986 CE .
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