a large share of this attention. Some scholars included them in general collections, such as the Sunan, Musnad, and other works, while others devoted separate works to them. They undertook all this—may Allah have mercy on them and reward them well—to safeguard this religion and fulfill their duty of offering sincere counsel to Muslims. Among those who devoted separate works to these hadiths were:

1- Abū Bakr ibn Khaythamah Zuhayr ibn Harb. Ibn Khaldūn said in the introduction to his history: “Abū Bakr ibn Abī Khaythamah, according to what al-Suhaylī related from him, went to great lengths in collecting the hadiths concerning the Mahdī.”

2- The hadith master Abū Nu‘aym. Al-Suyūtī mentioned his work in al-Jāmi‘ al-Saghīr and al-‘Arf al-Wardī. Indeed, al-Suyūtī abridged the hadiths that Abū Nu‘aym had collected concerning the Mahdī, incorporated them into his al-‘Arf al-Wardī, and added a very large number of further hadiths and reports.

3- Al-Suyūtī was also among those who devoted separate works to the hadiths concerning the Mahdī. He compiled a treatise entitled al-‘Arf al-Wardī fī Akhbār al-Mahdī, which is printed in the second volume of his al-Hāwī lil-Fatāwā. At its beginning, he said:

“Praise be to Allah, and peace be upon His servants whom He has chosen. This is a treatise in which I have collected the hadiths and reports transmitted concerning the Mahdī. In it, I have abridged the forty hadiths collected by the hadith master Abū Nu‘aym, adding what he had missed and marking it with the letter ‘kāf’.”

The hadiths and reports that al-Suyūtī included concerning the Mahdī number more than two hundred. They include authentic, sound, weak, and fabricated narrations. Whenever he cites a hadith, he attributes it to all those who recorded it. For example, he writes concerning one hadith: Abū Dāwūd, Ibn Mājah, al-Tabarānī, and al-Hākim recorded from Umm Salamah, who said:

“I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say: ‘The Mahdī is from my family, from the descendants of Fātimah.’”

4- The hadith master ‘Imād al-Dīn Ibn Kathīr. He said—may Allah have mercy on him—in his al-Fitan wa-l-Malāhim: “I have devoted a separate treatise to discussing the Mahdī. All praise is due to Allah, and all bounty comes from Him.”

5- The jurist Ibn Hajar al-Makkī. He entitled his work al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fī ‘Alāmāt al-Mahdī al-Muntazar. Al-Barzanjī mentioned it in al-Ishā‘ah and quoted from it, as did al-Saffārīnī in Lawāmi‘ al-Anwār al-Bahiyyah and others.

6- ‘Alī al-Muttaqī al-Hindī, the author of Kanz al-‘Ummāl. He wrote a treatise concerning the Mahdī, which al-Barzanjī mentioned in al-Ishā‘ah. Before him, Mullā ‘Alī Qārī al-Hanafī had also mentioned it in al-Mirqāh, his commentary on al-Mishkāh. It was also mentioned by the commentator on Rāmūz al-Hadīth.

7- Mullā ‘Alī Qārī was also among those who wrote concerning the Mahdī. He entitled his work al-Mashrab al-Wardī fī Madhhab al-Mahdī. It is mentioned in al-Ishā‘ah, where extensive passages from it are quoted.

8- Mar‘ī ibn Yūsuf al-Hanbalī, who died in 1033 AH. He entitled his work “Fawā’id