Musnad al-Harith = Bughyat al-Bahith an Zawaid Musnad al-Harith
- Author died
- 282 AH
- Editions
- Markaz Khidmat al-Sunnah wa-al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah
Musnad al-Harith (commonly referenced in scholarship through its surviving extraction, Bughyat al-Bahith 'an Zawa'id Musnad al-Harith) is a collection of hadith transmissions originally gathered by the Baghdadi hadith scholar Abu Muhammad al-Harith ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Usama al-Tamimi (186–282 AH / 802–895 CE) and preserved through the zawa'id (supplementary hadith) compilation of Nur al-Din al-Haythami (d. 807 AH / 1405 CE) .
Origin and Composition of the Original Musnad
Al-Harith ibn Abi Usama was born in Shawwal 186 AH and died on the Day of Arafah in 282 AH . His original Musnad was an extensive hadith compilation, but unlike typical musnad works arranged by Companion narrators, al-Harith arranged it under his direct teachers . He would cite several traditions from various Companions through a single teacher—such as Yazid ibn Harun—before transitioning to another teacher . Because of this method, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani described Musnad al-Harith as unarranged (ghayr murattab) . The bulk of the original text was subsequently lost, with only fragments, such as the second part of Musnad al-Mashayikh, known to have survived in manuscript form .
Structure and Method of Bughyat al-Bahith
Al-Haythami compiled Bughyat al-Bahith 'an Zawa'id Musnad al-Harith at the direction of his teacher Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi and with encouragement from his teacher's son, Abu Zur'a al-Iraqi . In this work, al-Haythami isolated the traditions in Musnad al-Harith that were not recorded in the Six Books (al-Kutub al-Sitta) . To facilitate research, he reorganized these supplementary narrations into thematic and jurisprudential chapters (kutub and abwab al-fiqh), opening the compilation with the Book of Faith (Kitab al-Iman) and concluding it with the Book of the Description of Paradise (Kitab Sifat al-Janna) . The collection contains over 1,150 texts .
Related Zawa'id Works and Scholarly Reception
In addition to al-Haythami's extraction, Musnad al-Harith served as a source for other major zawa'id compendia in the late classical period . Ibn Hajar extracted its unique narrations in al-Matalib al-'Aliya bi-Zawa'id al-Masanid al-Thamaniya, identifying over 600 supplementary texts; his count was lower than al-Haythami's because Ibn Hajar excluded traditions present in both the Six Books and Musnad Ahmad, whereas al-Haythami excluded only those in the Six Books . Al-Busiri also extracted its supplementary narrations in his work Ithaf al-Khiyara al-Mahara bi-Zawa'id al-Masanid al-'Ashara .
Editions
Bughyat al-Bahith has been published in modern critical editions:
- An edition edited by Husayn Ahmad Salih al-Bakiri, prepared as a doctoral dissertation at the Islamic University of Medina and published by the Center for Sunna and Sirah Service in Medina (1413 AH) .
- An edition edited by Mas'ad Abd al-Hamid Muhammad al-Sa'dani, published by Dar al-Tala'i' .
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