4.4 MB of foundational classical Arabic text from the OpenITI 2025-1-9 release fed an 11-phase synthesis pipeline (8 phases executed for v1). Phase 4 used a frontier reasoning model with a mandatory classical-citation requirement.
- Ibn al-Salāh al-Shahrazūrī (d. 643 AH) — Muqaddimat ibn al-Salāh fī ʿulūm al-ḥadīth. Genre-defining work; all later hadith-science treatises commentary on this.
- al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 463 AH) — al-Kifāyah fī ʿilm al-riwāyah. Earliest systematic treatise on transmission methodology.
- al-Suyūṭī (d. 911 AH) — Tadrīb al-rāwī fī sharḥ Taqrīb al-Nawawī. Most comprehensive commentary on Nawawī’s Taqrīb.
- al-Suyūṭī — al-Alfiyyah fī ʿilm al-ḥadīth. Verse-form mnemonic glossary.
- Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH) — Nuzhat al-naẓar fī tawḍīḥ Nukhbat al-fikar. Standard madrasah reference text.
- Ibn Ḥajar — Nukhbat al-fikar. Base text for Nuzhat al-naẓar.
- al-Sakhāwī (d. 902 AH) — Fatḥ al-mughīth bi-sharḥ alfiyyat al-ḥadīth li-l-ʿIrāqī. Encyclopedic commentary, vast terminological reference.
Chain grading
ṣaḥīḥ, ḥasan, ḍaʿīf, mawḍūʿ, and other authenticity verdicts
Narrator status
thiqah, ṣadūq, majhūl, matrūk, and other reliability ranks
Chain structure
musnad, mursal, munqaṭiʿ, muʿallaq, and other chain shapes
Transmission formulas
ʿanʿanah, taṣrīḥ, anna, qāla — the verbs of hearing
Defects (ʿilal)
ʿillah, shudhūdh, idrāj, qalb, iḍṭirāb, taṣḥīf, taḥrīf
Matn criticism
Content-side defect terminology and analysis vocabulary
Meta sciences
isnād, matn, riwāyah, dirāyah — the field’s self-vocabulary
Sources of criticism
jarḥ wa-taʿdīl, the discipline of narrator evaluation
Biographical
Ṭabaqāt, rijāl, ʿilal, mawḍūʿāt — biographical literature
Hadith typology
mutawātir, mashhūr, ʿazīz, gharīb, marfūʿ, mawqūf, maqṭūʿ
Jurisprudential application
Where hadith terminology meets fiqh — ruḥṣah, ʿazīmah, etc.
س ن دThe chain of transmission comprising the sequence of narrators conveying a hadith from its source to the compiler.
Classical source: Ibn al-Salāh, Muqaddimah, opening chapter on isnād (ʿilm al-isnād as the foundation of the science).
Live term browser is on the v1.1 roadmap. For now, query the glossary indexes via the/api endpoints. Vector field termEmbedding is searchable (retrievable: false) so you can ask “find me terms about chain weakness” in any tier.
Each glossary entry has 15+ fields, gated to one of three tiers. The public tier is label-only by design (IP-protective; classical Arabic quotes and madhhab-specific commentary are gated above).
Public
Free API key. Label-only. Suitable for app developers building consumer surfaces.
term, transliteration, root, category, definitionShort, termEmbedding
Research
Paid subscription. Adds extended definitions, classical citation references (light), and IPSC corpus example links.
+ definitionExtended, definitionAr, classicalSources, corpusExamples, confusionPairs
Scholar
Reviewer agreement. Full classical Arabic quotes, madhhab variations, etymology, modern-usage notes from al-Albānī / Shākir / al-Arnaʿūṭ.
+ classicalSourcesFull, corpusExamplesFull, definitionArExtended, madhhabVariations, earliestAttestation, modernUsage, etymology, pedagogicalNote
| Field | Description | Tier |
|---|---|---|
term | Arabic term (searchable) | all |
transliteration | ALA-LC romanization | all |
rootLetters | 3-4 Arabic root letters | all |
category | One of 11 categories | all |
difficultyLevel | beginner / intermediate / advanced / scholar | all |
definitionShort | English short definition (15-30 words) | all |
termEmbedding | 3,072-dim vector (searchable, retrievable=false) | all |
definitionExtended | 2-4 paragraph English with inline citations | research |
definitionAr | Arabic definition (1 sentence) | research |
classicalSources | Author + work + section (no Arabic quote) | research |
corpusExamples | Up to 3 hadithId + exemplifies note | research |
classicalSourcesFull | With Arabic quote + English translation | scholar |
corpusExamplesFull | 5+ examples per term with full provenance | scholar |
definitionArExtended | Full Arabic scholarly definition | scholar |
madhhabVariations | Where Hanafi/Shafiʿi/Maliki/Hanbali differ | scholar |
earliestAttestation | Scholar + work + century AH | scholar |
modernUsage | How al-Albānī / Ahmad Shākir / al-Arnaʿūṭ use the term | scholar |
etymology | Morphological / linguistic origin | scholar |
pedagogicalNote | When to learn this term in study sequence | scholar |