Muwatta, Book of Hunting (sayd)

The Book of Hunting is the eleventh book of the Muwatta in the transmission of Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi from Malik ibn Anas, in the edition of Bashshar Awwad Ma'ruf (1997). It occupies pages 635 to 644 of the first volume in the PDF pagination, and contains 27 numbered texts (1414–1440) in seven chapters. It concerns hunting for the muhrim and for others, trained dogs and birds of prey, sea game, the prohibition on beasts of prey that have fangs, and the hides of carrion and eating them in cases of necessity. ^{1 2}

• Not eating what is killed by a blunt arrow or a stone (1414–1419): two birds struck by a stone thrown by Ibn Umar; the dislike of al-Qasim and Sa'id for what is killed by a blunt arrow or a pellet; and that what the blunt arrow reaches the vital part of may be eaten. ^{1 3}
• Game taken by trained animals (1420–1426): the trained dog that holds its prey, which may be eaten, and the saying of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas on this; game taken by birds of prey; and the ruling on a Magian in hunting and slaughter. ^{3 4}
• Sea game (1427–1432): the disagreement of Ibn Umar and Ibn Abi Hurayra over what the sea casts up, then his permission to eat it; the hadith of the fish; and the Prophet ﷺ's saying about the sea that its water is pure and its dead animals are lawful. ^{4 5}
• Prohibition of every beast of prey that has fangs (1433–1435): the hadiths of Abu Tha'laba and Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him), and then what is disliked in eating horses, mules and donkeys. ^{5 6}
• The hides of carrion, and necessity (1436–1440): that a hide, once tanned, is purified; that the one in dire need eats what keeps off his hunger; and Malik's arrangement of what the one in dire need does. ^{7 2}

Malik begins with the sayings of Ibn Umar, Ibn Abbas and Said ibn al-Musayyab, and uses the phrase "the matter agreed upon among us" in the question of the Magian's dog. He cites the verses of al-Ma'ida, al-Nahl and al-Hajj on hunting and on livestock, and distinguishes what is lawful from what is forbidden. ^{1 4}

The editor records the transmitters from Malik, and quotes Ibn Abd al-Barr on differences among the transmitters, as in the wording "from the Prophet that he forbade the eating of every animal with fangs", which Yahya alone transmits in this chain. He notes that the report of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas is disconnected in Malik's transmission, and that the hadith on hides is connected in the view of Ibn Abd al-Barr. ^{8 5}

Each text of the book has its own record. It gives the highest narrator and the chapter of the text, presents the substance of the report in the museum's wording, and records the editor's takhrij where it is needed. See Hunting and Slaughter for the places where the book's rulings appear. ¹