المسند

Al-Musnad

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal · d. 241 AH · Hanbali · Hadith

c. 50 volumes in the Risala edition

Introduction

The author

Ahmad ibn Hanbal (164–241 AH) of Baghdad, hadith master and the imam who withstood the inquisition over the createdness of the Quran.

How it came about

Assembled from a far larger body of material he had memorised and taught to his son Abdullah, who completed and transmitted it.

Method and structure

Arranged by companion rather than by topic, beginning with the rightly guided caliphs, so that all reports from one narrator stand together.

Standing in the school

The largest of the classical musnads, roughly 27,000 reports, and a primary source of Hanbali evidence; its narrations range from rigorously sound to weak, and modern editions grade each one.

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