Kutub al-Sittah
Kutub al-Sittah (Arabic: ٱلْكُتُب ٱلسِّتَّة, romanized: al-Kutub al-Sitta, lit. 'the Six Books'), also known as al-Sihah al-Sitta (Arabic: الصحاح الستة, romanized: al-Ṣiḥāḥ al-Sitta, lit. 'the Authentic Six') are the six canonical hadith collections of Sunni Islam. They were compiled in the 9th-century CE.
"Six Books" redirects here. Not to be confused with Six Arts.
The books are the Sahih of al-Bukhari (d. 870), the Sahih of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 875), the Sunan of Abu Dawud (d. 889), the Sunan of al-Tirmidhi (d. 892) and the Sunan of al-Nasa'i (d. 915). The canonical version includes the Sunan of Ibn Majah (d. 887 or 889) as the sixth book, though some instead listed the Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas (d. 795) or Sunan of al-Daraqutni (d. 995).
They were first formally grouped and defined by Ibn al-Qaisarani in the 11th century, who added Sunan ibn Majah to the list.[1][2][3] The sixth book is disputed in Sunni Muslim jurisprudence; in particular, the Malikis and Ibn al-Athir consider al-Muwatta' to be the sixth book.[4] Some scholars considered Sunan al-Daraqutni to be the sixth book.[5] The reason for the addition of Ibn Majah's Sunan is that it contains many Hadiths which do not figure in the other five, whereas all the Hadiths in the Muwatta' figure in the other Sahih books.[4]