Islam Academy

Ibn Majah

ابن ماجه

Abu Abd Allah

Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Yazid Ibn Majah al-Qazwini (209 AH / 824 CE – 21 Ramadan 273 AH / 19 February 887 CE) was a hadith scholar from Qazvin whose Sunan eventually became the conventional sixth collection of the Sunni Six Books. He began studying hadith in Qazvin and travelled through major scholarly centers including Kufa, Basra, Wasit, Baghdad, Damascus, Homs, Egypt, Mecca, Medina, Rayy and Nishapur. His teachers included leading transmitters such as Ali ibn Muhammad al-Tanafisi, Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba and Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli. The Sunan contains 4,341 reports in the standard enumeration and became especially valued for material absent from the other five major collections, although Sunni critics also noted a substantial body of weak reports. Its eventual canonical status was therefore later than that of the Five Books and has been studied as an example of utility, breadth and scholarly reception interacting with judgments of authenticity. Ibn Majah also produced works in history and tafsir, though much of that material survives only indirectly or in later transmitted excerpts. The origin of the name “Majah” is itself reported differently in the sources, and a death date of 275 AH / 889 CE is a rejected alternative to the better-attested 273 AH / 887 CE chronology.

824 — 887

Names and variants

Ibn Majah· canonicalIbn Majah· canonicalابن ماجه· canonicalMuhammad ibn Yazid ibn Abd Allah· birth nameمحمد بن يزيد بن عبد الله· birth nameAbu Abd Allah· kunyaأبو عبد الله· kunyaal-Qazwini· nisbaالقزويني· nisbaal-Rabai· nisbaالربعي· nisbaİbn Mâce· variantIbn Mājah· variantIbn Mâja· variant

A hadith scholar of Qazvin

Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Yazid Ibn Majah al-Qazwini was a major hadith scholar of the third Islamic century. His name became permanently associated with the Sunan transmitted under his authority, later received as the conventional sixth book of the Sunni Six Books.

Sources: [1] bio evidence, [2] bio evidence, [4] bio evidence, [9] bio evidence

Name, kunya and nisbas

His name is transmitted as Muhammad ibn Yazid ibn Abd Allah, with the kunya Abu Abd Allah. He is known by the nisbas al-Qazwini, linking him to Qazvin, and al-Rabai, reflecting a client relationship with Banu Rabia.

Sources: [1] bio evidence, [2] bio evidence, [4] bio evidence, [9] bio evidence

What does “Majah” refer to?

Biographical sources do not agree on the origin of the name Majah. It has been identified as the name of a grandfather or mother, while another tradition treats it as a laqab of his father.

Sources: [1] bio evidence, [2] bio evidence, [4] bio evidence, [9] bio evidence

Birth in Qazvin

The standard chronology places Ibn Majah’s birth in 209 AH / 824 CE in Qazvin.

Sources: [1] bio evidence, [2] bio evidence, [4] bio evidence, [9] bio evidence

Early study in Qazvin

He began his hadith education in Qazvin, probably in his mid-to-late teens, learning first from scholars of his home region before undertaking longer journeys.

Sources: [1] bio evidence, [2] bio evidence, [4] bio evidence, [9] bio evidence

Travel in search of hadith

Like other major traditionists of his period, Ibn Majah travelled through multiple scholarly regions in order to hear hadith directly and broaden his network of transmitters.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Kufa

In Kufa he studied with prominent transmitters including Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba and Uthman ibn Abi Shayba.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Basra

In Basra his teachers included Muhammad ibn Bashshar, known as Bundar, and other leading hadith transmitters of the city.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Wasit

His journeys also took him to Wasit, where he studied from local hadith authorities such as Ahmad ibn Sinan al-Qattan.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Baghdad

In Baghdad he encountered major transmitters including Abu Khaythama Zuhayr ibn Harb, linking him to one of the central hadith environments of the Abbasid world.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Damascus

In Damascus he learned from scholars such as Hisham ibn Ammar and Duhaym, adding Syrian transmission lines to his corpus.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Homs

His Syrian travels also included Homs, where he heard hadith from local transmitters.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Egypt

Ibn Majah travelled to Egypt and studied with transmitters including Muhammad ibn Rumh, Abu Tahir ibn Sarh and Yunus ibn Abd al-Ala.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Mecca and Medina

He also studied in Mecca and Medina, incorporating Hijazi transmissions into the network behind his hadith corpus.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Rayy and Nishapur

His travels reached Rayy and Nishapur. Among the transmitters named in these eastern centers is Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

A wide teacher network

The geographical range of his teachers reflects the transregional character of third-century hadith scholarship, in which direct audition linked local traditions across the Islamic world.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Ali ibn Muhammad al-Tanafisi

In Qazvin, Ali ibn Muhammad al-Tanafisi was among the hadith scholars from whom Ibn Majah benefited before his wider travels.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba

Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba was one of Ibn Majah’s prominent Kufan teachers and represents a direct link to an earlier generation of major hadith compilers.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli

Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli is named among the scholars from whom Ibn Majah heard hadith in Nishapur.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Students and transmitters

Among those who transmitted from Ibn Majah were Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Qattan, Sulayman ibn Yazid al-Fami, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Khalili and Muhammad ibn Isa al-Abhari.

Sources: [1] travels evidence, [2] travels evidence, [3] travels evidence, [4] travels evidence

Reputation as a transmitter

Later biographical literature remembers Ibn Majah as a trustworthy transmitter and a hadith scholar with a strong command of transmitted material.

Sources: [1] bio evidence, [2] bio evidence, [4] bio evidence, [9] bio evidence

A compiler of legal hadith

The Sunan is organized largely around legal and devotional topics, placing reports within a structure designed for practical scholarly consultation rather than merely preserving them as an undifferentiated archive.

Sources: [4] sunan evidence, [5] sunan evidence, [7] sunan evidence

Structure of the Sunan

In the standard modern enumeration, Sunan Ibn Majah contains 4,341 hadiths arranged in thirty-seven books, beginning with a substantial introductory section on the Sunnah, knowledge and related themes.

Sources: [4] sunan evidence, [5] sunan evidence, [7] sunan evidence

The figure of 4,341 reports

The widely used count of 4,341 reports depends on the standard editorial numbering of the transmitted collection. It is a count of hadith units in that edition, not a count of completely distinct prophetic statements.

Sources: [4] sunan evidence, [5] sunan evidence, [7] sunan evidence

Material absent from the other Five Books

A major feature of Ibn Majah’s Sunan is the substantial body of reports not found in the other five principal collections. Later scholarship called attention to these additions, or zawaid, as one reason for the work’s usefulness.

Sources: [4] zawaid evidence, [6] zawaid evidence, [7] zawaid evidence

Criticism of weak reports

The collection also contains a significant number of weak reports according to later Sunni hadith critics. TDV reports an estimate of roughly one thousand, but individual gradings vary across scholars and editions.

Sources: [4] zawaid evidence, [6] zawaid evidence, [7] zawaid evidence

Not a collection restricted to sahih reports

Unlike the Sahih collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim, Ibn Majah’s Sunan was not designed as a collection restricted to reports judged sahih. Its contents span multiple levels of hadith evaluation.

Sources: [4] zawaid evidence, [6] zawaid evidence, [7] zawaid evidence

From Five Books to Six

The later formula of six canonical books should not be projected unchanged back into Ibn Majah’s lifetime. Recognition of his Sunan as the sixth member of a standard canon developed after the collection itself had circulated.

Sources: [4] canon evidence, [5] canon evidence, [6] canon evidence, [8] canon evidence

Ibn al-Qaysarani and the Six Books

By the late fifth/eleventh century, Ibn al-Qaysarani explicitly treated Ibn Majah alongside al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi and al-Nasaʾi in his work on the conditions of the six imams.

Sources: [4] canon evidence, [5] canon evidence, [6] canon evidence, [8] canon evidence

Canonical status was not immediate

The six-book canon did not become uniform everywhere at once. Other works, especially Malik’s Muwatta and the Sunan of al-Darimi, could occupy the sixth position in other scholarly listings.

Sources: [4] canon evidence, [5] canon evidence, [6] canon evidence, [8] canon evidence

Utility and canonization

Jonathan Brown argues that the later canonization of Ibn Majah illustrates how usefulness could matter alongside authenticity: the Sunan expanded the manageable canonical corpus with many reports absent from the other five books.

Sources: [4] canon evidence, [5] canon evidence, [6] canon evidence, [8] canon evidence

Canonization did not erase criticism

Acceptance into the Six Books did not end criticism of the collection’s weaker material. Sunni scholars could recognize its canonical usefulness while continuing to evaluate individual reports critically.

Sources: [4] canon evidence, [5] canon evidence, [6] canon evidence, [8] canon evidence

The introductory book

The opening portion of the Sunan contains reports on adherence to the Sunnah, knowledge, transmission and the status of early Muslim authorities, giving the collection an explicit methodological and doctrinal frame before its legal books.

Sources: [4] sunan evidence, [5] sunan evidence, [7] sunan evidence

Transmission of the Sunan

The surviving Sunan is known through later transmission lines and manuscript history. James Robson’s study of its transmission drew attention to the importance of identifying the transmitters through whom the text reached later generations.

Sources: [1] transmission evidence, [4] transmission evidence, [5] transmission evidence

A historical work

Biographical sources attribute to Ibn Majah a historical work arranged around transmitters and places. Later writers report having seen material from this work even though the complete text did not survive.

Sources: [1] historyworks evidence, [2] historyworks evidence, [4] historyworks evidence, [9] historyworks evidence

Tarikh al-khulafa

A transmitted work on the caliphs appears to preserve part of Ibn Majah’s historical writing. Its received form extends beyond his lifetime because later transmitters added continuations.

Sources: [1] historyworks evidence, [2] historyworks evidence, [4] historyworks evidence, [9] historyworks evidence

Later layers in the caliphal history

The caliphal history is textually layered: the section attributed to Ibn Majah was continued by later transmitters and still later additions. Attribution therefore has to distinguish the earliest core from subsequent continuations.

Sources: [1] historyworks evidence, [2] historyworks evidence, [4] historyworks evidence, [9] historyworks evidence

A tafsir work

Classical bibliographical notices also attribute a substantial tafsir to Ibn Majah. Al-Mizzi is reported to have seen two fascicles of an abridged selection, but the complete work is not known to survive.

Sources: [1] historyworks evidence, [2] historyworks evidence, [4] historyworks evidence, [9] historyworks evidence

The thulathiyyat of the Sunan

Five reports in the Sunan are transmitted through only three intermediaries between Ibn Majah and the Prophet. Later editors extracted and published these thulathiyyat as a small corpus; this is an extraction from the Sunan rather than evidence of a separate original book by Ibn Majah.

Sources: [1] thulathiyyat evidence, [4] thulathiyyat evidence, [7] thulathiyyat evidence

Death on 21 Ramadan 273 AH

The best-attested chronology places Ibn Majah’s death on 21 Ramadan 273 AH, corresponding to 19 February 887 CE.

Sources: [1] death evidence, [2] death evidence, [4] death evidence, [9] death evidence

The rejected 275 AH report

A death date of 275 AH / 889 CE also appears in the tradition, but the TDV biographical synthesis explicitly rejects it in favor of 273 AH.

Sources: [1] death evidence, [2] death evidence, [4] death evidence, [9] death evidence

Family at his burial

Biographical reports state that his brothers Abu Bakr and Abu Muhammad Hasan ibn Yazid, together with his son Abd Allah, took part in his burial.

Sources: [1] death evidence, [2] death evidence, [4] death evidence, [9] death evidence

His brother Hasan

His brother Abu Muhammad Hasan ibn Yazid is also described as a hadith transmitter and is reported to have transmitted hadith in Baghdad during a pilgrimage journey around 280 AH / 893 CE.

Sources: [1] death evidence, [2] death evidence, [4] death evidence, [9] death evidence

Elegies after his death

Later Qazvin material preserves elegies composed for Ibn Majah by Yahya ibn Zakariyya al-Taraiki and Muhammad ibn Aswad al-Qazwini, offering evidence for his local scholarly memory.

Sources: [1] elegies evidence, [4] elegies evidence, [9] elegies evidence

Legacy in hadith scholarship

Ibn Majah’s lasting influence rests above all on the Sunan: its legal organization, distinctive additional material and eventual canonical reception made it a standard reference for later Sunni hadith study.

Sources: [4] legacy evidence, [5] legacy evidence, [6] legacy evidence, [7] legacy evidence

Legacy as a historian

Although his historical and exegetical works survive only partially or indirectly, the notices about them show that Ibn Majah’s scholarly activity extended beyond hadith compilation alone.

Sources: [1] legacyhistory evidence, [4] legacyhistory evidence, [9] legacyhistory evidence

Source-sensitive points

established

Ibn Majah was born in Qazvin in 209 AH / 824 CE.

Sources: [1] Evidence for birth_209, [2] Evidence for birth_209, [4] Evidence for birth_209

established

Ibn Majah died on 21 Ramadan 273 AH / 19 February 887 CE.

Sources: [1] Evidence for death_273, [2] Evidence for death_273, [4] Evidence for death_273, [9] Evidence for death_273

disputed

A death date of 275 AH / 889 CE is transmitted in some sources but rejected by the preferred TDV chronology.

Sources: [1] Evidence for death_275, [2] Evidence for death_275, [4] Evidence for death_275

disputed

The origin of the name “Majah” is disputed: sources variously identify it with a grandfather, his mother, or a laqab of his father.

Sources: [1] Evidence for majah_name_origin, [2] Evidence for majah_name_origin, [4] Evidence for majah_name_origin

established

Ibn Majah began his hadith studies in Qazvin before travelling to other scholarly centers.

Sources: [1] Evidence for qazvin_education, [4] Evidence for qazvin_education, [9] Evidence for qazvin_education

established

His hadith travels included Kufa, Basra, Wasit, Baghdad, Damascus, Homs, Egypt, Mecca, Medina, Rayy and Nishapur.

Sources: [1] Evidence for travel_network, [2] Evidence for travel_network, [4] Evidence for travel_network

established

Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba was among Ibn Majah’s teachers in Kufa.

Sources: [1] Evidence for ibn_abi_shayba_teacher, [2] Evidence for ibn_abi_shayba_teacher, [4] Evidence for ibn_abi_shayba_teacher

established

Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli was among the scholars from whom Ibn Majah transmitted in Nishapur.

Sources: [1] Evidence for dhuhli_teacher, [2] Evidence for dhuhli_teacher, [4] Evidence for dhuhli_teacher

established

Later Sunni biographical sources describe Ibn Majah as a trustworthy transmitter and accomplished hadith scholar.

Sources: [1] Evidence for trustworthy_transmitter, [3] Evidence for trustworthy_transmitter, [4] Evidence for trustworthy_transmitter

reported

The standard modern enumeration of Sunan Ibn Majah contains 4,341 hadiths.

Sources: [4] Evidence for sunan_4341, [5] Evidence for sunan_4341, [7] Evidence for sunan_4341

established

The standard arrangement of Sunan Ibn Majah comprises thirty-seven books.

Sources: [4] Evidence for sunan_37_books, [5] Evidence for sunan_37_books, [7] Evidence for sunan_37_books

reported

TDV reports an estimate of roughly one thousand weak hadiths in the collection; individual gradings vary across critics and editions.

Sources: [4] Evidence for weak_reports_1000, [6] Evidence for weak_reports_1000, [7] Evidence for weak_reports_1000

established

Sunan Ibn Majah is not a collection restricted to reports graded sahih.

Sources: [4] Evidence for not_sahih_only, [6] Evidence for not_sahih_only, [7] Evidence for not_sahih_only

established

A substantial part of the Sunan’s later value came from reports not found in the other five major collections.

Sources: [4] Evidence for zawaid_value, [6] Evidence for zawaid_value, [7] Evidence for zawaid_value

established

Recognition of Sunan Ibn Majah as the sixth member of a standard Sunni hadith canon developed after Ibn Majah’s lifetime.

Sources: [5] Evidence for sixth_book_late, [6] Evidence for sixth_book_late, [8] Evidence for sixth_book_late

established

Ibn al-Qaysarani explicitly included Ibn Majah among the six imams in his Shurut al-a'imma al-sitta.

Sources: [4] Evidence for ibn_qaysarani_six, [6] Evidence for ibn_qaysarani_six, [8] Evidence for ibn_qaysarani_six

established

The Muwatta of Malik and the Sunan of al-Darimi appear in alternative scholarly configurations of the sixth canonical book.

Sources: [5] Evidence for alternative_sixth_books, [6] Evidence for alternative_sixth_books, [8] Evidence for alternative_sixth_books

probable

Modern scholarship argues that the Sunan’s utility and distinctive additional material helped explain its eventual canonical inclusion despite persistent criticism of weak reports.

Sources: [4] Evidence for utility_canonization, [5] Evidence for utility_canonization, [6] Evidence for utility_canonization

established

Canonical acceptance of Sunan Ibn Majah did not prevent later Sunni scholars from criticizing individual reports and transmitters within it.

Sources: [4] Evidence for canon_did_not_end_criticism, [6] Evidence for canon_did_not_end_criticism, [7] Evidence for canon_did_not_end_criticism

established

The surviving text of Sunan Ibn Majah reached later generations through identifiable transmission lines studied in modern scholarship.

Sources: [1] Evidence for transmission_history, [4] Evidence for transmission_history, [5] Evidence for transmission_history

established

Biographical and bibliographical sources attribute a historical work to Ibn Majah, portions of which were known to later scholars.

Sources: [1] Evidence for tarikh_work, [4] Evidence for tarikh_work, [9] Evidence for tarikh_work

established

The received Tarikh al-khulafa contains later continuations beyond the portion attributed to Ibn Majah.

Sources: [1] Evidence for tarikh_khulafa_layers, [4] Evidence for tarikh_khulafa_layers, [9] Evidence for tarikh_khulafa_layers

reported

Classical notices attribute a substantial tafsir to Ibn Majah, but the complete work is not known to survive.

Sources: [1] Evidence for tafsir_work, [2] Evidence for tafsir_work, [4] Evidence for tafsir_work

established

Five reports in Sunan Ibn Majah have only three intermediaries between Ibn Majah and the Prophet and were later extracted as thulathiyyat.

Sources: [1] Evidence for thulathiyyat_five, [4] Evidence for thulathiyyat_five, [7] Evidence for thulathiyyat_five

Relationships

Ibn Abi Shayba

teacher · established

Contributions

A major Sunan collection

Sunan Ibn Majah organized a large body of hadith around legal, devotional and doctrinal topics and became a standard reference in later Sunni hadith scholarship.

scholarly · established

Preservation of additional reports

The collection preserved a substantial body of reports not found in the other five principal hadith collections, increasing its usefulness to later scholars.

scholarly · established

A transregional hadith network

His travels connected Qazvin with scholarly centers from Iraq and Syria to Egypt, the Hijaz and Khurasan, allowing his collection to draw on a geographically wide transmission network.

scholarly · established

Historical and exegetical scholarship

Notices of his historical and tafsir works show that Ibn Majah’s scholarship extended beyond hadith compilation, even though those works survive only incompletely or indirectly.

scholarly · probable

A distinctive place in the Sunni hadith canon

The later inclusion of his Sunan among the Six Books gave Ibn Majah a distinctive canonical legacy while preserving scholarly debate over the strength of some individual reports.

scholarly · established

Sources

  1. [1]
    Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ

    al-Dhahabī · Classical biographical source

  2. [2]
    Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb

    Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī · Classical biographical source

  3. [3]
    Tadhkirat al-ḥuffāẓ

    al-Dhahabi · Classical hadith-biographical source

  4. [4]
    İBN MÂCE

    M. Yaşar Kandemir · TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi · 1999

  5. [5]
    The Transmission of Ibn Majah's “Sunan”

    James Robson · Journal of Semitic Studies · 1958

  6. [6]
    The Canonization of Ibn Mâjah: Authenticity vs. Utility in the Formation of the Sunni Ḥadîth Canon

    Jonathan A. C. Brown · Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée · 2011

  7. [7]
    al-Sunan (Sunan Ibn Mājah)

    Ibn Majah · Primary hadith collection

  8. [8]
    Shurūṭ al-aʾimma al-sitta

    Ibn al-Qaysarānī · Classical hadith-canon work

  9. [9]
    al-Tadwīn fī akhbār Qazwīn

    ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Rāfiʿī · Classical local-biographical source

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