Ibn al-Jawzi
Kitab al-Musalsalat li-Ibn al-Jawzi
- Author died
- 597 AH
- Editions
- Kitab al-Musalsalat li-Ibn al-Jawzi
Kitab al-Musalsalat (The Book of Chained Hadiths) is a hadith compilation by the Baghdadi Hanbali polymath Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH / 1201 CE) that gathers traditions transmitted with shared chain characteristics (musalsal) .
Background and Composition
Ibn al-Jawzi composed the collection after a student of hadith who had not previously studied under him requested a narration session . Ibn al-Jawzi offered to transmit the first hadith he had personally heard from a teacher, which had likewise been the first hadith that teacher heard from his own instructor, in a continuous chain of priority (musalsal bi-al-awwaliyya) . Having narrated that opening text, he followed it with a wider compilation of chained hadiths drawn from his own received transmissions (masmu'at) .
A recorded reading session of the manuscript took place at Ibn al-Jawzi's residence in Baghdad on Saturday, 22 Rajab 581 AH . In historical bibliographies of Ibn al-Jawzi's writings, such as that recorded by Ibn al-Mubarrad, the work is registered as a single fascicle (juz' wahid) .
Contents and Transmission
The collection opens with the well-known Hadith of Mercy: الراحمون يرحمهم الرحمن، ارحموا من في الأرض يرحمكم من في السماء ("The merciful are shown mercy by the Most Merciful; show mercy to those on earth, and the One in the heavens will show mercy to you") . Ibn al-Jawzi related it as the first hadith he heard from his teacher Ismail ibn Abi Salih al-Naysaburi, who had heard it as the first hadith from his father Abu Salih al-Mu'adhdhin, continuing back through Sufyan ibn Uyaynah to the Companion Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As . This chain through Ibn al-Jawzi became a recognized route of transmission utilized by later traditionists, including Abd al-Latif al-Harrani, Abu al-Fath al-Maydumi, Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, and Zakariyya al-Ansari .
Beyond the initial tradition of priority, the book contains hadiths chained by specific verbal formulas and sworn affirmations . These include reports where successive narrators recite specific oaths, such as أشهد بالله وأشهد لله ("I testify by God and I testify for God") or أشهد بالله لقد سمعت ("I testify by God that I heard") prior to quoting their teachers .
Manuscripts
Copies of Kitab al-Musalsalat are preserved in manuscript collections, including a copy held within the Umariyya composite manuscripts (al-Majami' al-Umariyya, no. 37, ff. 6b–28b) at the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus . Other manuscript copies are held in the Central Library of the Islamic University of Madinah and in Mecca .
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