Al-Suyuti's "Little Collection"

Suyuti, Jalal al-Din al-. Kitab al-Jami al-Saghir min hadith al-basir an-nadir [The Book of the Lesser Compilation].

€ 7,500.00

A cornerstone of hadith scholarship by one of the leading figures of medieval science. Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (1445-1505) was an enormously prolific polymath whose "versatility stands out as unique in the history of Arabic literature" (cf. GAL II, 144). He was named the Renewer of the Faith for his century, considered a foremost master of hadith - partly based on this work - and was lauded as an historian, biographer, and encyclopedist. With over 300 attributed works, al-Suyuti was among the most prolific of Muslim authors, and his impact on all fields is hard to overstate.

This manuscript is an abridgement of one of his two most famous hadith collections, which detailed the sayings, writings, and traditions of the Prophet in tens of thousands of individual examples. Even standing alone, the "Lesser Compilation" in its entirety covers over 10,000 hadith, and is only thus named in comparison to its larger counterpart, Al-Jami' al-Kabir. Left unfinished upon al-Suyuti's death, al-Jami' al-Kabir runs to about thirty volumes. The "Lesser Compilation", Al-Jami' al-Saghir, included many of the hadith identified by al-Suyuti as containing records of the Prophet's speech which run contrary to his actions. Even its commentaries are immense: the most famous commentary of the Lesser Compilation was completed by hadith scholar al-Munawi (1545-1641) and comprises eight volumes. Through such commentaries, al-Suyuti's monumental scholarly undertakings remained in current use long after his lifetime.