How many ḥadīth are there? Thousands, right?
As usual it depends on who’s counting and how. Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī (d. 275/889) lists two interesting early opinions in his letter to the Meccans about his famous Sunan...
As usual it depends on who’s counting and how. Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī (d. 275/889) lists two interesting early opinions in his letter to the Meccans about his famous Sunan...
The Meccan al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī al-Khallāl (d. 242/856+) and Ibn Mubārak (d. 181/797) set the number at ~900. When asked why Abū Yūsuf al-Qāḍī placed the number at ~1,100, Ibn Mubārak retorted, “Abū Yūsuf adopts these defective ones from here and there like weak ḥadīths."... 
Abū Dāwūd, of course, put the number higher: ~4,800. He regarded himself as having collected more than anyone else (he didn’t know abt Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s Musnad, which includes around 5,200). The editor of the letter, Abu Ghuddah, provides some other early opinions in a note:
According to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Ibn al-Mahdī (d 198/814) placed the number of ḥadīth relating to matter concerning the ḥalāl and the ḥarām at mere ~800. So too Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān (d. 198/813) numbered such traditions at ~800.
ia601301.us.archive.org/34/items/hanaf…
ia601301.us.archive.org/34/items/hanaf…
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