The Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanʿani (Arabic: مصنف عبد الرزاق الصنعاني, romanized: Muṣannaf ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Sanʿānī) is an early hadith collection compiled by the eighth-century Yemeni scholar ʽAbd al-Razzaq al-Sanʽani. As a collection of the musannaf genre, it contains over 18,000 traditions arranged in topical order.^[1][2]

History

Compilation

Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanʿani likely compiled the musannaf in the second half of the second Hijri century after studying under Ma'mar ibn Rashid, Ibn Jurayj and Sufyan al-Thawri during their respective visits to Yemen. In a sample of 3,810 traditions analysed by Harald Motzki, the majority were largely transmitted from the three. As these three had compiled their own individual written hadith collections, al-Sanʿani's musannaf is considered to be a collation of older works. There are also relatively small numbers of traditions from Sufyan ibn ʽUyaynah, Abu Hanifa and Malik ibn Anas, among many others.^[2]

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Collections Sunni1 Kutub Al-Sittah ("The Six Books") Sahih al-Bukhari صحيح البخاري Sahih Muslim صحيح مسلم Sahih al-Tirmidhi صحيح الترمذي Sunan Abu Dawood سنن أبي داود Sunan al-Nasa'i سنن النسائي Sunan ibn Majah سنن ابن ماجه Others Al-Adab al-Mufrad Kanz al-Ummal Kitab al-Athar Mu'jam al-Kabeer Mu'jam al-Awsat Mu'jam al-Saghir Mustadrak ala al-Sahihayn At-Targhib wat-Tarhib Majma al-Zawa'id Musnad Abu Hanifa Musnad_al-Bazzar Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal Musnad al-Shafi'i Musnad al-Siraj Musnad al-Firdous Musnad Abu Ya'la Musnad al-Tayalisi Musnad Abu Awanah Musnad Ishaq Ibn Rahwayh Musnad Humaidi Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah Muwatta Imam Malik Sahih Ibn Hibban Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah Sahifah Hammam ibn Munabbih Shama'il al-Muhammadiyya Sunan al-Kubra Bayhaqi Sunan al-Wusta Bayhaqi Sunan al-Daraqutni Sunan al-Darimi Sunan Nasa'i al-Kubra Sunan Sa'id ibn Mansur Shu'ab al-Iman Tahdhib al-Athar Jami ul Kamil Shia Al-Kutub Al-Arb'ah ("The Four Books") Kitab al-Kafi الكتاب الكافي Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih من لا يحضره الفقيه Tahdhib al-Ahkam تهذیب الاحکام Al-Istibsar الاستبصار Others Al-Wafi Wasa'il al-Shia Mustadrak al-wasa'il Bihar al-Anwar Nahj al-Balagha The Book of Sulaym ibn Qays Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya Risalah al-Huquq Sahifah of al-Ridha Al-Risalah al-Dhahabiah Da'a'im al-Islam Uyoun Akhbar Al-Ridha Haqq al-Yaqeen Ain Al-Hayat Al-Ghadir Ibadi Jami Sahih Tartib al-Musnad 1 - Books also revered by Ahmadiyya
Related topics Ahl al-Hadith Criticism Sheikh al-Hadith
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Textual history and reconstruction

The musannaf was considered lost until its manuscripts were rediscovered, edited and published by Habib al-Rahman al-'Azmi in 1972.^[3][4] The extant work is compiled from manuscripts hailing from different paths of transmission (riwayāt), although approximately 90% of the material can be traced back to a transmitter named Ishaq ibn Ibrahim al-Dabari. Ishaq likely received the musannaf in written form from his father, a student of Abd al-Razzaq, but ostensibly omitted him from the riwaya as he was awarded an ijazah directly from Abd al-Razzaq after attending his lectures as a child.^[2] Abd al-Razzaq included his recension of Ma'mar ibn Rashid's Book of Expeditions (Arabic: كتاب المغازي, romanized: Kitāb al-Maghāzī) in the musannaf, which has been reconstructed using a partial manuscript in Ishaq's riwaya dated to 747.^[4]

Reliability

In an article published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Motzki argues that the musannaf is a source of authentic traditions from the first Hijri century, stating that the wholesale rejection of hadith literature "deprives the historical study of early Islam of an important and useful type of source." However, he added that the musannaf "cannot be regarded as completely truthful. This even Muslims themselves did not claim."^[2]

Publications

• Rāshid, Maʿmar ibn, et al. The Expeditions: An Early Biography of Muhammad. Edited and translated by Sean Anthony, NYU Press, 2015.
• al-Sanʿānī, ʿAbd al-Razzāq, al-Muṣannaf. Edited by Habib al-Rahman al-'Azmi, Beirut, 1970-1972.