Contribution of ajzāʾ ḥadīthiyya to understanding the history of hadith literature: The case of Mujjāʿa b. al-Zubayr

This study deals with Abū ʿUbayda Mujjāʿa b. al-Zubayr, a hadith transmitter of the 2nd century, and a hadith booklet (cuzʾ/nuskha) primarily made up of his hadiths, which came down to us in two parts. Mujjāʿa lived in Basra and Jundishapur and apparently attended the sessions of the famous Basran Successors such as al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Muḥammad b. Sīrīn, and Qatāda b. Diʿāma. I have found in the sources148 hadiths, in the isnāds of which Mujjāʿa's name appears. 71 of these are found in the two aforementioned manuscripts. Out of 148, 98 hadiths were quoted or referred to approximatey 200 times by 56 compilers in 95 different works. These numbers may be enough to demonstrate the relatively large footprint of one 'little guy' of hadith history. I argue that studying why and how hadiths of 'little-known heros' of hadith history such as Mujjāʿa were employed in the sources may help us understand better the history and nature of hadith literature and may open new lines of research. The thesis consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, after a brief biographical sketch, I have treated the jarḥ-taʿdīl evaluations made about Mujjāʿa in a chronological order. I have aimed to observe the historical development and inner dynamics of the jarḥ-taʿdīl literature. One of the conclusions of the Chapter I is that the context in which a transmitter criticism is done is of central importance and quotations of earlier opinions in later works are often problematic. I suggest that the relations between rijāl books should be comparatively studied as to their purposes, styles, and writing techniques paying special attention to the use and reuse of same opinions in various contexts. In the second chapter, I have examined the channels through which the two manuscripts containing Mujjāʿa hadiths were transmitted and finally came down to us. Main objective of the third chapter is to trace some thirty traditions ascribed to Mujjāʿa in hadith literature. I have discussed why and how each of these hadiths might have been quoted in the sources in which they occur. I have also identified in what periods, by which authors, and in what type of works hadiths of Mujjāʿa were used. It seems that one of the determinant factors on the nature and structure of hadith compilations in the 4th-6th centuries was what I have tentatively conceptualized as 'the culture of mustaḫraj and fawāʾid'. In the entire hadith literature of the period there seems to be an 'unnamed' project of compiling and/or using different versions of the hadiths found in the Ṣaḥīḥayn and sometimes in other respected works as well as other, often rare and defective, hadiths not found therein. This mechanism seems to have eventually shaped the nature and content of nearly the entire hadith corpus of the period. I also argue that most hadiths were quoted in any type of hadith work primarily not as an evidence becuase of their contents but rather because of some technical qualities (and often defects) these hadiths carry. Hadith scholars, it appears, almost always compiled their works with their concern for technical hadith studies in mind and they often could not put aside these aspects even in their most argumentative works. In this context, I contend that each and every hadith work should be evaluated in the context of the priorities of hadith scholarship of the period, taking into consideration their purposes, their limits, and the conditions under which they were compiled. Keywords: Hadith, History of Hadith, Hadith Literature, Hadith Booklets (Ajzāʾ Ḥadīthiyya), Ricāl literature, Mujjāʿa b. al-Zubayr