muwatta

Muwatta, or al-Muwatta, is an early Islamic hadith collection compiled by Imam Malik ibn Anas in Medina in the late 8th century. The word muwatta denotes something well-prepared or well-assembled. The work is among the oldest surviving collections and is valued for presenting both the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and the practice (amal) of the people of Medina, together with Malik’s own legal opinions.

The text is organized into books and sections that cover ritual purity, prayer, fasting, zakat, pilgrimage, and a broad range of civil, commercial, and family law, including marriage, divorce, and inheritance. A distinctive feature is Malik’s emphasis on the Medina practice as a source of legal guidance alongside hadith, reflecting the city’s role as a living center of early Islamic jurisprudence.

There are multiple manuscript traditions of the Muwatta. The most widely circulated form today is the version transmitted through Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi, though other chains preserve Malik’s original text in varying degrees. Because of its antiquity and its close association with Maliki jurisprudence, the Muwatta became a foundational source for the Maliki school of Islamic law and influenced jurists across the Islamic world. It is studied by Sunni scholars and has been translated into several languages, with numerous commentaries and scholarly editions.

See also Malik ibn Anas, Maliki madhhab, hadith collections.