[Second: The names of the imams who recorded the hadiths and reports concerning the Mahdī in their books]

The names of the imams who recorded the hadiths and reports concerning the Mahdī in their books:

Many imams recorded the hadiths concerning the Mahdī in Sahīh, Sunan, Mu‘jam, Musnad, and other collections. Those whose books I have consulted, or whom I have seen mentioned as having recorded these hadiths, number thirty-eight. They are:

1- Abū Dāwūd, in his Sunan.
2- Al-Tirmidhī, in his Jāmi‘.
3- Ibn Mājah, in his Sunan.
4- Al-Nasā’ī, as mentioned by al-Saffārīnī in Lawāmi‘ al-Anwār al-Bahiyyah and al-Munāwī in Fayd al-Qadīr. I have not found it in al-Sughrā; perhaps it is in al-Kubrā.
5- Ahmad, in his Musnad.
6- Ibn Hibbān, in his Sahīh.
7- Al-Hākim, in al-Mustadrak.
8- Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, in al-Musannaf.
9- Nu‘aym ibn Hammād, in Kitāb al-Fitan.
10- The hadith master Abū Nu‘aym, in Kitāb al-Mahdī and al-Hilyah.
11- Al-Tabarānī, in al-Kabīr, al-Awsat, and al-Saghīr.
12- Al-Dāraqutnī, in al-Afrād.
13- Al-Bārūdī, in Ma‘rifat al-Sahābah.
14- Abū Ya‘lā al-Mawsilī, in his Musnad.
15- Al-Bazzār, in his Musnad.
16- Al-Hārith ibn Abī Usāmah, in his Musnad.
17- Al-Khatīb, in Talkhīs al-Mutashābih and al-Muttafiq wa-l-Muftariq.
18- Ibn ‘Asākir, in his history.
19- Ibn Mandah, in Tārīkh Asbahān.
20- Abū al-Hasan al-Harbī, in the first part of al-Harbiyyāt.
21- Tammām al-Rāzī, in his Fawā’id.
22- Ibn Jarīr, in Tahdhīb al-Āthār.
23- Abū Bakr ibn al-Muqri’, in his Mu‘jam.
24- Abū ‘Amr al-Dānī, in his Sunan.
25- Abū Ghanm al-Kūfī, in Kitāb al-Fitan.
26- Al-Daylamī, in Musnad al-Firdaws.
27- Abū Bakr al-Iskāf, in Fawā’id al-Akhbār.
28- Abū al-Husayn ibn al-Munāwī, in Kitāb al-Malāhim.
29- Al-Bayhaqī, in Dalā’il al-Nubuwwah.
30- Abū ‘Amr al-Muqri’, in his Sunan.
31- Ibn al-Jawzī, in his history.
32- Yahyā ibn ‘Abd al-Hamīd al-Himmānī, in his Musnad.
33- Al-Rūyānī, in his Musnad.
34- Ibn Sa‘d, in al-Tabaqāt.
35- Ibn Khuzaymah.
36- Al-Hasan ibn Sufyān.
37- ‘Umar ibn Shabbah.
38- Abū ‘Awānah.

Al-Suyūtī mentioned these last four in al-‘Arf al-Wardī among those who recorded the hadiths concerning the Mahdī, without identifying a particular book in which they did so.

[Third: The scholars who devoted separate works to the subject of the Mahdī]

Some scholars who wrote books concerning the Mahdī:

Just as the scholars of this Ummah devoted their attention to compiling and explaining all the hadiths transmitted from their Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the hadiths concerning the Mahdī likewise received