Risalat al-Musalsalat
- Author died
- 1345 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah
Risalat al-Musalsalat (The Treatise on Chained Traditions) is a hadith treatise on continuously patterned narrations (al-ahadith al-musalsalah) compiled by the Moroccan traditionist and historian Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Kattani (1274–1345 AH / 1857–1927 CE) .
Author and Context
The author, Muhammad ibn Ja'far ibn Idris al-Kattani al-Hasani al-Fasi, was born and raised in Fez . He traveled twice to the Hijaz, migrated with his family to Medina in 1332 AH, moved to Damascus in 1338 AH, and later returned to Morocco, where he died in Fez on 16 Ramadan 1345 AH . Kattani composed numerous treatises dedicated to hadith scholarship and bibliographical documentation, among which Risalat al-Musalsalat stands alongside his renowned reference works al-Risalah al-Mustatrafah and Nazm al-Mutanathir min al-Hadith al-Mutawatir .
Content and Transmission
The work belongs to the specialized genre of musalsalat—hadith compilations that record reports whose transmitters share a specific continuous quality, act, phrase, or feature throughout the chain of transmission. Kattani received and transmitted these structured chains through notable scholars of his era; among the chains documented through him is the chain composed exclusively of hadith masters (al-musalsal bi-l-huffaz), which he transmitted from Ahmad ibn Ahmad al-Bannani, as well as the chain comprised solely of narrators named Muhammad (al-musalsal bi-l-Muhammadiyyin), which he received from Muhammad Sirr al-Khatm . These chains were transmitted from him by leading figures of the succeeding generation, including Umar ibn Hamdan al-Mahrisi and Muhammad Abd al-Hayy al-Kattani .
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