The Impact of Maghribi Ḥadīth Commentaries on the Mashriq

Within twenty years of the prophet Muḥammad’s death, Islam fanned out westward,1 beginning with Ifrīqiya2 until reaching the Iberian Peninsula in 92 H/ 711 CE.3 From Kairouan to Fez and on to Córdoba, these lands were to remain strongly interconnected, despite the changes of dynasties and the historical events that would push the two shores of the western Mediterranean to confront one another4 and at times to each consider the other part as the enemy.5 Al-Maghrib al-ifrīqī and al-Maghrib al-andalusī6 formed a nucleus of a geographical, social, cultural and religious convergence. The conquest was not only a territorial and political expansion, but also a specifically religious and ideological one, and so the spread of Islam brought with it the development and flourishing of the Islamic sciences, including ʿulūm al-ḥadīth and in particular the genre of ḥadīth commentaries. In this context, the present contribution intends to shed light on how ḥadīth collections were introduced into the Islamic West, how they were received, how Maghribi scholars dealt with them, and, accordingly, how the Maghrib came to be considered as dār ḥadīth. In addition, I will dedicate a section to the leadership of the Maghrib vis-à-vis the ḥadīth literature dealing with commentaries. As indicated in the title, the central purpose of this study is to highlight the importance of Maghribi ḥadīth commentaries and their impact on the Mashriq. I will take the