VII
of authorities" (isnād) was itself subjected to criticism. The collections now made were termed Musnads, the chief emphasis lying, as the name implies, on the reporters of the traditions. These latter were arranged simply according to the authorities (Companions of the Prophet) who had handed them down. The most important of these works was the Musnad of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal († 241 A. H.).
A third and still more important class comprised the so-called Muṣannaf collections, i. e., collections classified according to subject matter. This was a necessary step in the growth of the literature. The influence of these traditions had been steadily increasing; and as Mohammedan law developed, and especially as rival schools fiercely opposed to one another grew up, it was inevitable that the words and customs of Mohammed should be given greater and greater weight, until they came to be placed beside the Koran as one of the two prime sources of authority. Thus the need of a practically arranged and trustworthy corpus of the Ḥadīṯ literature was found to be imperative. It was with the specific aim of supplying this need that Buḫārī's Ṣaḥīḥ was composed, and its paragraphs (ابواب) were intended to cover pretty much the whole range of Mohammedan jurisprudence (fiqh). The paragraph-headings (تَراجِم) were first written down, and then the traditions were inserted in their appropriate A places. The proof of this is seen in the fact that not
