Malik’s al-Muwatta, the Yahya ibn Yahya Narration (Moroccan Supreme Council Edition)

About this book

Imam Malik ibn Anas al-Asbahi’s (d. 179 AH) al-Muwatta is among the earliest and most important works of hadith and jurisprudence. It brings together Prophetic hadiths, reports from the Companions and Successors, scholars’ opinions, and Malik’s legal reasoning, arranged by books and legal chapters. The narration of Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi al-Andalusi (d. 243 AH) is its best-known and most widely circulated version, especially in Morocco and al-Andalus. The Moroccan Supreme Council published a scholarly critical edition of this narration, supervised by Muhammad al-Rawandi, Idris ibn al-Dawiyya, and Muhammad Izz al-Din al-Mayar al-Idrisi. The first edition appeared in 1434 AH/2013 CE from Imprimerie al-Najah al-Jadida in Casablanca; a second edition followed in four volumes in 1440 AH/2019 CE. The edition establishes the text of the Yahya al-Laythi narration through his son Ubayd Allah, using valuable Moroccan manuscripts, notably the Ibn al-Talla, Hamzawiyya Zawiya, and Shurayh al-Ruayni copies. It collates the narrations, records variants, corrects copying errors and mistakes in some earlier editions, verifies chains, texts, and names, and draws on Moroccan hadith scholars’ work on criticism and uncommon vocabulary. This is an important publication of al-Muwatta for its care with the textual witnesses and wording. It is suitable for hadith and legal studies, while difficult passages still benefit from comparison with other critical editions.