An examination of Asad b. Mūsā's Kitāb al-Zuhd

Reports on zuhd (an Islamic terminology denotes religious/spiritual asceticism ) found a place in the hadith compilations written in the second century of Hijra, when the hadith literature began to be collected and classified, and in the following times, monographs on the subject of zuhd based on reports by Sufīs who were widely interested in hadith or reporters who tended to live ascetic life emerged. One of these works is the Kitāb al-zuhd of Asad b. Mūsā (132/750-212/852), who spent most of his life in the second century and died in the early third century. Asad b. Mūsā's Kitāb al-zuhd has the value of an authentic historical document because it conveys the thought on asceticism in the second century of the Hijra and is considered one of the earliest extant materials on asceticism. In this study, besides the personal and intellectual biography of the author, the work is analysed in terms of form, content, narration style and literature. In this context, issues such as the type, source and degree of authenticity of the reports in the work and the narration style of the work, as well as the reason for the composition of the work, the understanding of asceticism in the work and the comparison of the work with other examples in its genre are emphasised.