Among the first to compose a work on this subject was al-Qāḍī Abū Muḥammad al-Rāmahurmuzī1 (265–360 AH), then al-Ḥākim Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Naysābūrī2 (321–405 AH), and then Abū Nuʿaym al-Aṣfahānī3 (336–430 AH).
After them came al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī4 (392–463 AH), who composed al-Kifāya on the rules of narration, and al-Jāmiʿ li-Ādāb al-Shaykh wa al-Sāmiʿ on its etiquette; and there is scarcely any branch of the disciplines of ḥadīth in which he has not authored a separate book. Then Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ5 (476–544 AH) composed al-Ilmāʿ ilā Maʿrifat Uṣūl al-Riwāya wa-Taqyīd al-Samāʿ, and there were others besides.
Then came al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAmr ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (577–643 AH), who composed his magnum opus Maʿrifat Anwāʿ ʿIlm al-Ḥadīth, more commonly known as Muqaddima Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ. He took up al-Khaṭīb's scattered works, gathered the various aims dispersed throughout them, and added to them choice useful material drawn from other works, so that what had been scattered elsewhere was now assembled in his book. For this reason people devoted themselves to it and followed its path, and there is no counting how many have versified it, abridged it, drawn additions out of it, kept to it alone, opposed it, or defended it, as al-Ḥāfiẓ ibn Ḥajar has said. His book became the principal point of reference, and every abridgement and expansion comes back to it, as al-Suyūṭī has said.
Those who worked on it, by way of versification, abridgement, commentary, or marginal note, or who built on what others had built on it, include:
Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ's book remained the sole source for the science of muṣṭalaḥ for about two hundred years. Then al-Ḥāfiẓ ibn Ḥajar6 composed his concise yet comprehensive treatise Nukhbat al-Fikr fī Muṣṭalaḥ Ahl al-Athar, which he subsequently expounded under the title Nuzhat al-Naẓar fī Tawḍīḥ Nukhbat al-Fikar. The scholars turned to it and came to rely on it in the science of muṣṭalaḥ for its concision, its orderly arrangement, its sifting, its careful verification, and its inclusion of a number of important additions absent from the Muqaddima of Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ. From that point on, the Nukhba and its commentary became the focus of study and reflection for the scholars of athar.
Among those who worked upon it are:
Later, Imām Raḍī al-Dīn ibn al-Ḥanbalī al-Ḥanafī (908–971 AH) extracted, from the books that had been composed before him, the Nukhba together with its commentaries and marginalia, which are themselves a distillation of the Muqaddima of Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ and its commentaries and marginalia. His book is, as he titled it, Qafw al-Athar fī Ṣafw ʿUlūm al-Athar. To it he added, in concise form, the positions of the leading Ḥanafī scholars on the disputed questions, and in this there is much benefit.
This is the summary of what Shaykh ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghudda has said in his introduction to Qafw al-Athar.7
Al-Qāḍī Abū Muḥammad al-Rāmahurmuzī (260–360 AH) titled his work al-Muḥaddith al-Fāṣil bayna al-Rāwī wa-l-Wāʿī. It treats the etiquette of the narrator, the student and the muḥaddith; the methods of receiving and transmitting ḥadīth; and the efforts of the muḥaddithūn in the pursuit of knowledge. [tr.] ↩
Al-Ḥākim's book Maʿrifat ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth was neither ordered systematically nor refined; even so, it was a valuable treatise covering fifty sections dealing with the rules of narration. [tr.] ↩
Abū Nuʿaym al-Aṣfahānī (336–430 AH) wrote al-Mustakhraj ʿalā Maʿrifat ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth li-l-Ḥākim, adding to al-Ḥākim's work; even so, several sections remained incomplete. [tr.] ↩
Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (392–463 AH) composed al-Kifāya fī ʿIlm al-Riwāya on the rules of narration, and al-Jāmiʿ li-Akhlāq al-Rāwī wa-Ādāb al-Sāmiʿ on its etiquette, and wrote separate treatises on most of the disciplines of ḥadīth criticism. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr ibn Nuqṭa said: "Every fair-minded observer knows that the muḥaddithūn after al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī are dependent upon his books." [tr.] ↩
Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (476–544 AH), the author of the renowned al-Shifāʾ bi-Taʿrīf Ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafā, peace and blessings be upon him. He named his treatise in muṣṭalaḥ: al-Ilmāʿ ilā Maʿrifat Uṣūl al-Riwāya wa-Taqyīd al-Samāʿ. [tr.] ↩
Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Maḥmūd ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-Shāfiʿī (773–852 AH), more commonly known as Ibn Ḥajar, Qāḍī al-Quḍāt, and Amīr al-Muʾminīn fī al-Ḥadīth. [tr.] ↩
Drawn from Shaykh ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghudda's introduction to his edition of Ibn al-Ḥanbalī's Qafw al-Athar fī Ṣafw ʿUlūm al-Athar. [tr.] ↩
How verification of the Sunnah began in the era of the senior ṣaḥāba and developed into the era of codification and taḥqīq through the third century and beyond.
The threefold division of ḥadīth study: ʿilm riwāyat al-ḥadīth, ʿilm dirāyat al-ḥadīth, and ʿilm uṣūl al-ḥadīth (muṣṭalaḥ al-ḥadīth), as set out in the opening of al-Mulakhkhaṣ.
Al-shādhdh is that which a single narrator has transmitted alone, raising doubt in the mind of the critic; this is also the definition of al-munkar. Statements of the early imāms show the two are one.
The Ḥanafīs classify narrators into four (or, on some accounts, five) groups, including the al-mastūr and majhūl categories with their five-case treatment.
