Muqaddimah Ibn Aṣ-Ṣalāḥ

The renowned work commonly referred to as Muqaddimat Ibn aṣ-Ṣalāḥ is formally titled Maʿrifat Anwāʾ ʿIlm al-Ḥadīth (معرفة أنواع علم الحديث). It is one of the most influential and foundational texts in the discipline of ḥadīth methodology (ʿulūm al-ḥadīth), authored by the eminent 7th-century Shāfiʿī scholar, Imām Ibn aṣ-Ṣalāḥ (d. 653 AH / 1255 CE).

Born in 577 AH (1181 CE), Ibn aṣ-Ṣalāḥ served as a muḥaddith, faqīh, and teacher in various Islamic centres of learning, including Damascus. In 628 AH, upon the completion of Madrasah al-Ashrafiyyah in Damascus, he was appointed as a teacher there. When preparing to deliver a structured curriculum on the sciences of ḥadīth, he found no existing work sufficiently suitable for instruction. Thus, he began dictating his own research to his students in a series of teaching sessions. These lessons gradually evolved into the comprehensive manual now known as the Muqaddimah.

The dictation of the Muqaddimah spanned approximately three years and three months, beginning in Ramaḍān 630 AH and concluding in Muḥarram 634 AH. As the work originated from live instruction rather than planned authorship, it includes occasional discursive comments and digressions atypical of conventionally authored texts. Nevertheless, its overall organisation is sound, and its content reflects extensive engagement with the works of earlier authorities such as Imām al-Ḥākim (d. 405 AH), Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH), and Imām al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 463 AH).

Due to its encyclopaedic coverage and methodological clarity, the Muqaddimah became a cornerstone in the study of ḥadīth sciences and inspired numerous abridgements, rearrangements, commentaries, and versifications. Among the most celebrated versifications are the Alfiyyat al-Ḥadīth of Imām al-ʿIrāqī (d. 806 AH) and Imām al-Suyūṭī (d. 911 AH), both of whom also penned detailed commentaries on their respective poems. Al-ʿIrāqī’s commentary is titled Sharḥ al-Tabṣirah wa al-Tadhkirah, while al-Suyūṭī’s is known as al-Baḥr alladhī Zakhar.

This work laid the foundation for later seminal texts, including Nuzhat al-Naẓar by Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH), composed nearly 130 years after Ibn aṣ-Ṣalāḥ’s passing. It remains a central reference for students and scholars of ḥadīth to this day.