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Pavel Pavlovitch
mind a matn identical to that through Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Naysābūrī. 88 If
so, then al-Bayhaqī would have thought of a matn that differs notably
from the one meant by al-Dārimī. As a result ʿAmr b. ʿAwn cannot be
considered a PCL; collective isnāds once again prove to be highly
unreliable as a means for dating traditions.
In addition to the discussed key figures, Diagram 2 (p. 175) shows a
number of single-strand isnāds reaching down to Hushaym b. Bashīr.
Muslim cites an isnād through ʿAmr al-Nāqid which is said to carry a
matn identical with the one through Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Tamīmī. 89 Such
a collective isnād cannot be considered as a direct proof of Hushaym b.
Bashīr’s CL status. It nevertheless provides additional evidence in
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support of Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā’s position as a PCL of Hushaym and may
therefore be considered as an indirect indicationof Hushaym’s CL status.
Al-Ṭabarānī cites a variant that is identical with the tradition through al-
Dawraqī. 90 As al-Dawraqī is not present in al-Ṭabarānī’s isnād, it is
likely that the latter reflects an attempted dive under the seeming PCL.
The third single strand is provided by al-Naḥḥās. 91 It concurs with the
variant of Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Tamīmī, save for the clause 1, in which
Khudhū ʿan-nī! occurs only once. This minor change may indicate an
authentic transmission from Hushaym b. Bashīr. At the same time, the
single-strand isnād provided by al-Naḥḥās does not allow us to exclude
the possibility that someone along the transmission line borrowed Yaḥyā
b. Yaḥyā’s tradition and fitted it out with a new isnād, which imparts to
it an appearance of an independent ḥadīth. Al-Naḥḥās’ informant, ʿAlī b.
Saʿīd b. Bashīr (d. 299/911–12) is a barely known traditionist whose
tarjama contains contradictory information about his merits and
demerits. Disparaging accounts about ʿAlī b. Saʿīd b. Bashīr may have
been conditioned partly by his close relationship with the rulers. 92 More
88 Al-Bayhaqī, al-Sunan al-Kubrā, 8:222.
89 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, 11:272, no. 1690.
90 Al-Ṭabarānī, al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ, eds. Abū Maʿādh Ṭāriq b. ʿAwaḍ Allāh b.
Muḥammad, Abū al-Faḍl ʿAbd al-Muḥsin b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥusaynī, 10 vols. (Cairo:
Dār al-Ḥaramayn, 1415/1995), 2:32, no. 1140.
91 Al-Naḥḥās, al-Nāsikh wa-l-Mansūkh, (al-Maktaba al-ʿAllāmiyya,
1357/1938), 99.
92 ʿAlī b. Saʿīd b. Bashīr is said to have been appointed a governor of some
village (qarya) in Egypt. When the local people refused to pay their land tax
(kharāj), ʿAlī b. Saʿīd would let the pigs into the mosque (Ibn Ḥajar, Lisān al-
Mīzān, ed. ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghudda, 5 vols. [Maktab al-Maṭbūʿāt al-Islāmiyya,
n.d.), 5:543.