# Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj

Abū al-Ḥusayn Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj ibn Muslim ibn Ward al-Qushayrī an-Naysābūrī (Arabic: أبو الحسين مسلم بن الحجاج بن مسلم بن وَرْد القشيري النيسابوري; after 815 – May 875 CE / 206 – 261 AH), commonly known as Imam Muslim, was an Islamic scholar from the city of Nishapur, particularly known as a muhaddith (scholar of hadith). His hadith collection, known as Sahih Muslim, is one of the six major hadith collections in Sunni Islam and is regarded as one of the two most authentic (sahih) collections, alongside Sahih al-Bukhari.

## Biography

Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj was born in the town of Nishapur in the Abbasid province of Khorasan, in what is now northeastern Iran. Historians differ as to his date of birth, though it is usually given as 202 AH (817/818), 204 AH (819/820), or 206 AH (821/822).
Al-Dhahabi said, "It is said that he was born in the year 204 AH," though he also said, "But I think he was born before that."
Ibn Khallikan could find no report of Muslim's date of birth or age at death by any of the ḥuffāẓ "hadith masters", except their agreement that he was born after 200 AH (815/816). Ibn Khallikan cites ibn al-Salah, who cites al-Hakim al-Nishapuri's Kitab ʿUlama al-Amsar, in the claim that Muslim was 55 years old when he died on 25 Rajab, 261 AH (May 875) and therefore his year of birth must have been 206 AH (821/822).
Ibn al-Bayyiʿ reports that he was buried in Nasarabad, a suburb of Nishapur.
According to scholars, he was of Arab origin. The nisba "al-Qushayri" signifies he belonged to the Arab tribe of Banu Qushayr, members of which migrated to the newly conquered Persian territory during the expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate. According to two scholars, ibn al-Athīr and ibn al-Salāh, he was a member of that tribe. His family had migrated to Persia nearly two centuries earlier following the conquest.
The author's teachers included Harmala ibn Yahya, Sa'id ibn Mansur, Abd-Allah ibn Maslamah al-Qa'nabi, al-Dhuhali, al-Bukhari, ibn Ma'in, Yahya ibn Yahya al-Nishaburi al-Tamimi, and others. Among his students were al-Tirmidhi, ibn Abi Hatim al-Razi, and Ibn Khuzayma, each of whom also wrote works on hadith. After his studies throughout the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Iraq and Syria, he settled in his hometown of Nishapur, where he met, and became a lifelong friend of al-Bukhari.

### Sources

Several sources became prominent loci for learning about the biography of Muslim. The History of Baghdad by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, produced in the 11th century, formed the basis of all subsequent descriptions of his life in Islamic sources. For example, the complete biography of Muslim in the History of Islam by al-Dhahabi contains 27 reports, 11 of which (41%) come from Al-Baghdadi's History. The second most important source for information about Muslim's life, now lost, was the History of Nishapur of al-Hakim al-Nishapuri. The History of Baghdad itself, which contains 14 reports about Muslim, took half of them (7) from the History of Nishapur.

## Sahih Muslim

In the mid-9th century, Muslim composed a collection of what he considered entirely sahih hadith, now known as Sahih Muslim. Today, it is considered one of the six canonical books of hadith in Sunni Islam. In particular, it along with Sahih al-Bukhari are considered the two pre-eminent collections in this canon; together they are called the Sahihayn. Figures on the number of hadiths in this book vary from three to twelve thousand, depending on whether duplicates are included, or only the text is. Muslim's collection has a substantial overlap with Sahih al-Bukhari: according to Al-Jawzaqi, 2,326 traditions are shared between the two. The collections also roughly share 2,400 narrators; only 430 of the narrators in Sahih al-Bukhari are not found in Sahih Muslim, and only 620 narrators in Sahih Muslim are not found in Sahih al-Bukhari.

## Legacy

The scholar of Ahlus-Sunnah, Ishaq Ibn Rahwayh was first to recommend Muslim's work.
Ishaq's contemporaries did not at first accept this; Abu Zur‘a al-Razi objected that Muslim had omitted too much material which Muslim himself recognised as authentic and that he included transmitters who were weak.
Ibn Abi Hatim (d. 327/938) later accepted Muslim as "trustworthy, one of the hadith masters with knowledge of hadith"; but this contrasts with much more fulsome praise of Abu Zur‘a and also his father Abu Hatim. It is similar with Ibn al-Nadim.
Muslim's book gradually increased in stature such that it is considered among Ahlus-Sunnah the most authentic collections of hadith, second only to Sahih Bukhari.

## Works

* Sahih Muslim: his collection of authentic hadith