Tuhfat al-Tahsil fi Dhikr Ruwat al-Marasil
- Author died
- 826 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Rushd
Tuhfat al-Tahsil fi Dhikr Ruwat al-Marasil (The Gift of Attainment Concerning the Transmitters of Hurried Narrations) is a specialized biographical reference on hadith transmitters associated with disconnected chains (marasil and inqita'), authored by the Shafi'i hadith scholar Wali al-Din Abu Zur'ah Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahim Ibn al-Iraqi (d. 826 AH / 1423 CE) .
Background and Purpose
The identification of disconnected narrations is regarded by hadith scholars as a vital subdiscipline because a chain of narration may appear outwardly continuous while harboring a hidden defect of disconnection (inqita'), rendering it unreliable . Earlier scholars had dedicated works to this topic: Ibn Abi Hatim (d. 327 AH) composed Kitab al-Marasil, arranging transmitters alphabetically, and Salah al-Din al-Ala'i (d. 761 AH) devoted a major chapter of his Jami' al-Tahsil fi Ahkam al-Marasil to transmitters whose narrations were judged to be mursal .
Ibn al-Iraqi considered it advantageous to isolate and consolidate the biographical material into a standalone compilation . He combined the entries of Ibn Abi Hatim's al-Marasil and al-Ala'i's Jami' al-Tahsil, supplementing them with extensive additions drawn from other classical critical literature .
Structure and Method
The work is organized as an alphabetical dictionary of hadith transmitters whose transmissions contain disconnections, encompassing a total of 1,386 entries . In compiling the text, Ibn al-Iraqi established a clear system of editorial sigla to differentiate the layers of transmission and commentary:
- Material added by al-Ala'i within an existing biography from Ibn Abi Hatim is prefaced with «قال العلائي» (al-Ala'i said) and concluded with «انتهى» (end) .
- Entire standalone entries added by al-Ala'i are marked with the Arabic letter ‘ayn (ع) written beside or above the name .
- Remarks and supplementary points supplied by Ibn al-Iraqi himself within an entry open with «قلت» (I said) and close with «انتهى» .
- Entire standalone biographical entries contributed by Ibn al-Iraqi are marked with the Arabic letter zay (ز) .
The entries compile the judgments of early and classical critics on transmission links, including assessments by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Bukhari, Ali ibn al-Madini, Abu Hatim al-Razi, Abu Zur'ah al-Razi, al-Daraqutni, and al-Dhahabi, alongside the evaluations of al-Ala'i and Ibn al-Iraqi .
Reception and Editions
The book has served as an essential manual for hadith researchers investigating hidden defects and disconnections in isnads . A manuscript copy is preserved in Istanbul at the Köprülü Library (MS 386) .
The work has been published in modern scholarly editions, notably:
- Edited by Abd Allah Nawwarah and published by Maktabat al-Rushd in Riyadh (1419 AH / 1999 CE) .
- Edited by Rif'at Fawzi Abd al-Muttalib, Nafidh Husayn Hammad, and Ali Abd al-Basit Mazid, published by Maktabat al-Khanji in Cairo .
It was also abridged by al-Harith ibn Ali al-Hasani in his study Muntaqa al-Alfaz bi-Taqrib 'Ulum al-Hadith lil-Huffaz , and served as the primary subject of a critical complement titled al-Takmil 'ala Tuhfat al-Tahsil by Abd al-Hakim Salih .
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