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Musannafhadīth collections are defined by their arrangement of content according to topic and constitute a major category within the class of all such works. Etymologically,musannaf is the passiveparticle of theArabic verbsannafa, meaning to arrange by chapter, and so has the literal meaning of something that is sectionally arranged. Though the designation can thus apply to any text so ordered, and indeed has been used with respect to such distinct genres asfiqh (i.e. Islamicjurisprudence), in practice it is most typically applied to compilations ofahadīth.
Numerous hadīth collections are of themusannaf variety, including theSix Books (i.e. the six canonical collections of hadith inSunni Islam). A less typical format is themusnad compilation, where content is arranged according to the originaltransmitter of the report, typically acompanion of Muhammad.
