The Ur-Muwaṭṭaʾ and Its Recensions

Abstract

In this essay, I use the numerous extensive quotations from Mālik found in al-Shāfiʿī’s Kitāb al-Umm to reconstruct what might be called al-Shāfiʿī’s recension of Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ and to compare this recension with the surviving complete Muwaṭṭaʾ recensions of Abū Muṣʿab al-Zuhrī, Ibn Bukayr, and Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Laythī. I present examples of the differences between the recensions, analyze one specific type of variant closely, and use my findings to suggest possible reasons for the various kinds of discrepancies. Through this analysis I both affirm Mālik’s role as the Muwaṭṭaʾ’s author and situate the nature of his authorship in the context of teaching and transmission practices and the materiality of the book in the second/eighth century.