Talkhis al-Mustadrak

Talkhis al-Mustadrak is the abridgement that al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH) made of al-Hakim's [[work/al-mustadrak-ala-al-sahihayn|al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn]]. The publishers of the Hyderabad edition say that in it he "drew attention to [al-Hakim's] laxity and his authentications". ¹

Al-Dhahabi gives each hadith with a shortened chain and then agrees or disagrees with al-Hakim's verdict. Among the comments Muqbil al-Wadi'i quotes are his verdict that Anas's hadith of the Prophet ﷺ and the four caliphs reciting the basmala aloud is fabricated, that "I am the city of knowledge" is among the false reports, and his remark about a narrator al-Hakim authenticated that al-Hakim himself had called him a liar in his history. ⁴

Al-Dhahabi estimated that about a third of the Mustadrak meets the condition of the two masters or one of them, devoted a separate booklet to the hadiths he judged fabricated, and still called the Mustadrak "a useful book, which I have abridged". ⁵

The Talkhis was printed beneath the Mustadrak at the Nizamiyya press in Hyderabad, with 1341 AH on the title page of volume 3. ¹ The Dar al-Haramayn edition reproduces al-Dhahabi's comments, each marked with the word "al-Dhahabi". ⁶ Al-Wadi'i holds that it cannot replace the Mustadrak, because al-Dhahabi drops part of the chain and the defect may lie in what he dropped. ³