JOURNAL OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

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Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 11 (2011)
Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān (120–98/738–813), who is present in five
isnāds, and al-Ṭabarī, who relies on a single-strand isnād through Ibn
Bashshār and ʿAbd al-Aʿlā. I start with the analysis of traditions through
al-Qaṭṭān. According to Abū Dāwūd (d. 275/889) on the authority of
Musaddad, al-Qaṭṭān related the following matn:
(1) Khudhū ʿan-nī! Khudhū ʿan-nī! (2) Qad jaʿala l-lāh u la-hunna sabīl an .
(3a) Al-thayyib u bi-l-thayyib i jald u miʾat in wa-ramy un bi-l-ḥijāra (3b) wa-lbikr
u bi-l-bikr i jald u miʾat in wa-nafy u sana.
(1) Take it from me! Take it from me! (2) Allāh has appointed a way for
them. (3a) A non-virgin with a non-virgin [punish them with] one hundred
strokes and [an execution by] stones thrown, (3b) a virgin with a virgin
[punish them with] one hundred strokes and a year’s banishment. 96
Al-Maḥāmilī (235–330/849–943) and al-Shāshī (d. 335/946–7) 97 cite
a similar matn. Both differ insignificantly from Abū Dāwūd in preferring
rajm un bi-l-ḥijāra to ramy un bi-l-ḥijāra in clause 3a. Abū Dāwūd’s matn
most likely reflects the original wording of the tradition; rajm un bi-l-
ḥijāra is a pleonasm which most likely emerged in the course of
transition from a descriptive locution to a terminological formulation.
Al-Nasāʾī’s matn resembles that of al-Maḥāmilī and al-Shāshī but
reverses the order of clauses 3a and 3b. 98 It will be recalled that this is
far from being an isolated case, as the order of these two clauses is fluid,
while its reversal does not affect the meaning of the tradition. Insofar as
al-Nasāʾī preserves all the peculiarities present in the other three
traditions, his version may be considered as evidence supporting the
status of Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān as a PCL or CL of the present bundle.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the tradition found in the
collection of Ibn Māja. 99 He cites a variant of the taghrīb u sanat in
tradition, the origin of which cannot be identified. At the same time Ibn
Māja omits the main peculiarity of al-Qaṭṭān’s matn, represented by the
locution ramy un /rajm un bi-l-ḥijāra. Even though one may concede that
Ibn Māja’s tradition generally belongs to the cluster at issue, it cannot
serve as a proof of al-Qaṭṭān’s CL/PCL status.
96 Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 4:370–1, no. 4415.
97 Al-Maḥamilī, Āmālī, ed. Ibrāhīm Ibrāhīm al-Qaysī (1st ed., ʿAmmān, Riyadh:
al-Maktaba al-Islāmiyya, Dār al-Qayyim:, 1412/1991), 374, no. 421; al-Shāshī,
Musnad, 3:222.
98 Al-Nasāʾī, Sunan, 10:60, no. 11027.
99 Ibn Māja, Sunan, ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-
Fikr, n.d.), 2:852–3, no. 2550.