SUNAN TYPE LITERATURES IN EARLY HADİTH LITERATURE AND PROBLEMS OF SUNAN CONSEPT

Abstract

Our article deals with Sunan type works in early Hadith Literature and the concept of Sunan problems in the works of Hadith Methodology. In the history of hadith, many works have been classified under the name of Sunan. Some of these classified works are also mentioned in the sources as Jâmi‘, Musannaf, Sahîh. In this respect, there is a problem in naming some hadith sources as Sunan. The word Sunan, which is the name of a genre in the hadith literature, has gained a conceptual meaning in the historical process. In the Hadith Methodology works of the Mutaqaddimin (Former Scholars) and Mutaakhkhirin (Following Scholars) period, the word Sunan was mainly used both as the Sunnah of the Prophet and the name of some Hadith works. The conceptualization of the word Sunan took place quite late and many definitions of Sunan were made in the contemporary period. However, the definition of Sunan and the contents of the works whose name is Sunan do not match. Among these definitions, the definition of Kettânî (d. 1345/1927) in his work er-Risâletü'l-müstatrefe was accepted and transferred in later sources. Kettânî did not include any reference in his work for his definition. Because of this problem, the definition of Kettânî has been discussed by some authors. Our article deals with these problems arising from the concept of Sunan.