Mirqat al-Suud ila Sunan Abi Dawud
- Author died
- 911 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn Ḥazm
Mirqat al-Suud ila Sunan Abi Dawud (Ascent's Stairway to the Sunan of Abu Dawud) is a hadith commentary authored by al-Jalal al-Suyuti (849–911 AH / 1445–1505 CE) on the compilation Sunan Abi Dawud by Abu Dawud .
Composition and Context
The book forms part of al-Suyuti's dedicated series of concise commentaries and marginal glosses on the major hadith collections, including the Six Books . Al-Suyuti noted in his opening remarks that Mirqat al-Suud was the third work in this sequence, following his commentaries on Sahih al-Bukhari (al-Tawshih) and Sahih Muslim (al-Dibaj), and preceding his commentary on Sunan al-Tirmidhi (Qut al-Mughtadhi) .
Al-Suyuti outlined the primary core of his work as an abridgment and synthesis of Ma'alim al-Sunan by Abu Sulayman al-Khattabi, to which he appended additional findings, rarities, and commentary points .
Method and Sources
Al-Suyuti opens the work by quoting the epistle written by Abu Dawud to the inhabitants of Mecca concerning the criteria and arrangement of his collection, followed by introductory discussions addressing the various transmissions (riwayat) of Sunan Abi Dawud and the commentaries compiled on it .
In commenting on the text, al-Suyuti lists the relevant book heading and then directly cites the targeted phrase or sentence without recording the full hadith or repeating every chapter title . Rather than annotating every narration, he selects specific reports warranting clarification, addressing rare vocabulary (gharib), vocalization, legal rulings (ahkam), creedal questions, grammatical nuances, historical notices, and principles of hadith and jurisprudence (usul) .
In addition to al-Khattabi's Ma'alim al-Sunan, al-Suyuti drew heavily on Ibn al-Athir's al-Nihayah fi Gharib al-Hadith, the commentary notes left by al-Nawawi on parts of Sunan Abi Dawud, the commentary of Wali al-Din al-'Iraqi, al-Tibi's commentary on Mishkat al-Masabih, and dictation treatises (amali) by al-Izz ibn Abd al-Salam and al-Hafiz al-'Iraqi .
Abridgment and Transmission
The commentary was abridged by the Moroccan Maliki scholar Ali ibn Sulayman al-Dimnati al-Bujum'awi (d. 1306 AH / 1888 CE) under the title Darajat Mirqat al-Suud ila Sunan Abi Dawud . Al-Dimnati completed this abridgment in 1294 AH, and it was published in Cairo at al-Matba'ah al-Wahbiyyah in 1298 AH during his lifetime .
Surviving manuscript copies of al-Suyuti's original work include a copy in the Ministry of Awqaf in Kuwait transcribed in 1067 AH, a copy in the Zawiyah Uthmaniyyah in Tolga in southern Algeria dated 984 AH, and an undated manuscript preserved at the Köprülü Library in Turkey . The complete text was edited by Muhammad Shayib Sharif and published in Beirut by Dar Ibn Hazm in 1433 AH / 2012 CE .
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