Compilation During Tabieen's (Followers of 

the Companions) Era (100-200 A.H) 

This was the age of the followers of the companions of Holy Prophet (PBUH). They devoted
their entire lives to collecting traditions from different centers of learning with the result that a
large number of traditions were preserved. Now it become possible to collect several memoirs in
large volumes.

The compilation of Ahad th was officially supervised by the Caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz He
wrote letters to the scholars of Hadith all over the Islamic empire, and requested them to embark
upon the task of compiling the Ahadith that were then available in the form of books, individually
owned by the companions He issued an order to all the governors that they should gather all the
men of knowledge and look for the Ahadith of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and collect them Hence,
with this official proclamation, many of the men of knowledge started to compile books of
Ahadith. The Caliph officially appointed learned scholar like Imam Muhammad Ibn Muslim Ibn
Shibab al-Zuhri to compile the Hadith literature, Imam Zuhri, who was born in a Qureshi family,
would go to any person in Madina and record from That person about the events of the Holy
Prophet's(PBUH) life. It is stated by Ibn Sa'ad that al Zuhri collected a considerable number of
Ahadith with the result that after his death several camels were needed to transport them.
The compilations made in this period do not exist today independently, having been
incorporated into the larger collection of the later period The nature of these compilations was
that of individual collections. The difference between the books that were written in the second
century, the Ahadith mentioned in the books were arranged subject wise, while they were not
arranged with proper chapters in the books written in the first century. For example, the script of
Hammam ibn Munabbiah, who was a pupil of Abu Hurairah(R.A), was not arranged under
proper headings, whereas Al-Muwatta, the book of Imam Malik was arranged in proper
chapters. It was during this period that the Hanafi and Maliki school of thought were formulated.
After the individual compilations of this period comes the Al Muwatta by Imam Malik bin Anas,
the first regur work which contained a well arranged collection of Ahadith The number of the
Ahadith collected by him is put at seventeen hundred (1700) This came to be accepted as a
standard compilation.

Another important compilation was Musnad Ahmad by Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal who was the
founder of the Hanbali school of thought.

In this period, the Ahadith of the Holy Prophet [PBUH] .the sayings of his companions and the
decision of the Tabieen were collected together in the same volume. However ,it was mentioned
with each narration whether it was that of the Prophet (PBUH) his companions or of their
followers.