Musnad Umar ibn al-Khattab li Yaqub ibn Shayba
- Author died
- 262 AH
- Editions
- Muʾassasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfiyyah
Musnad Umar ibn al-Khattab is an early hadith work by Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Shaybah al-Sadusi (d. 262 AH / 875 CE), representing the only published surviving portion of his extensive, critical compendium al-Musnad al-Kabir al-Mu'allal .
Background and Scope
The work originally formed part of an encyclopedic hadith project designed as a comprehensive, critically annotated musnad (musnad mu'allal) . Ya'qub ibn Shaybah completed around thirty volumes of the projected compilation, which estimates suggest would have reached one hundred volumes had it been finished . During its composition, he maintained forty blankets in his residence for copyists who stayed overnight to transcribe the text, expending ten thousand dinars on its transcription .
The parts of the larger compendium known to have circulated included the musnads of the Ten Promised Paradise (among them Umar ibn al-Khattab), Ibn Mas'ud, Ammar ibn Yasir, al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, Utba ibn Ghazwan, and certain freedmen (mawali) . Of this vast corpus, only a small portion has survived into the modern era, consisting of the tenth part (al-Juz' al-'Ashir) of Musnad Umar ibn al-Khattab .
Method and Contents
In his compilation, Ya'qub ibn Shaybah arranged traditions by Companion narrator, opening each entry with an exhaustive biographical account (tarjama) with isnads before citing their narrations . For each tradition, he records the chains of transmission, notes supporting narrations (shawahid), investigates hidden defects ('ilal) in both chains and texts, and provides critical assessments of individual transmitters (al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil) .
The extant tenth part contains hadiths transmitted from Umar ibn al-Khattab through various chains, including a group of narrations transmitted on the authority of Ibn Abbas . Throughout these entries, the author critically evaluates the reliability of individual transmitters and clarifies the status of rare or contested narrational paths .
Reception and Editions
The rigorous critical standard of Ya'qub ibn Shaybah's Musnad earned widespread acclaim among classical hadith scholars . Al-Daraqutni praised its authority, stating that if the book were written on the walls of a bathhouse, it would be obligatory to transcribe it .
The surviving tenth part of Musnad Umar ibn al-Khattab was edited by Kamal Yusuf al-Hut and published in Beirut in 1405 AH / 1985 CE .
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