JOURNAL OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

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Pavel Pavlovitch
The al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī cluster
Abū ʿUbayd (a direct CR) and al-Shāshī no. 1325131 cite a tradition said
to have been received from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī through the agency of
Yazīd b. Hārūn (118–206/736–821) and Maymūn b. Mūsā al-Maraʾī/al-
Marāʾī (death date unknown). Abū ʿAwāna does also provide an isnād
on the authority of Yazīd b. Hārūn but it is of a very limited
corroborative force, since this is yet another instance in which Abū
ʿAwāna relies on a collective line of transmission. The matn of the
tradition through Yazīd b. Hārūn deserves closer attention since it is
markedly different from the other narratives that make up the revelation
cluster:
(1a) Kāna rasūl u l-lāh i , ṣalʿam, (1a 1 ) idhā nazala ʿalay-hi l-waḥy u ʿarafnā
dhālika fī-hi (1a 2 ) wa-ghammaḍa ʿaynay-hi wa-tarabbada wajh u -hu (1b)
Qāla [?]: “Fa-nazala/nuzzila ʿalay-hi fa-sakatnā fa-lammā surriya ʿan-
hu qāla: (2) Khudhū-hunna! Iqbalū-hunna! (3) Qad jaʿala l-lāh u la-hunna
sabīl an . (4a) Al-bikr u bi-l-bikr i jald u miʾat in thumma nafy u ʿām in (4b) wa-lthayyib
u bi-l-thayyib i jald u miʾat in thumma l-rajm.”
(1a) When a revelation descended upon the Messenger of Allāh, may
Allāh bless him and grant him peace, (1a 1 ) we would recognize this on
him, (1a 2 ) he would close his eyes and his face would grow pallid (1b) [?]
said: “Then a revelation came down upon him, whereupon we fell silent.
When he [the Messenger of Allāh] regained his composure, he said: (2)
‘Take them [plural feminine] from me! Accept them [plural feminine]
from me! (3) Allāh has appointed a way for them. (4a) A virgin with a
virgin [punish them with] one hundred strokes then a year’s banishment
(4b) and a non-virgin with a non-virgin [punish them with] one hundred
strokes then stoning’.”
209
Insofar as Abū ʿUbayd and al-Shāshī’s variants differ insignificantly,
one is on safe ground to assume that both derive from an early version of
the revelation tradition that would have been spread by Yazīd b. Hārūn
towards the end of the second century AH. What is more, Abū ʿUbayd is
a direct CR, which increases our confidence that, in the case of Yazīd b.
Hārūn, we are dealing with a fully-fledged CL. Let us now take a closer
look at the matn and assess the significance of its differences from the
other traditions in the revelation cluster.
In clause 1a of the preamble Yazīd b. Hārūn has preferred to explicate
the grammatical subject (idhā nazala ʿalay-hi l-waḥy u ) instead of the
131 Abū ʿUbayd, al-Nāsikh wa-l-Mansūkh, 133–4, no. 241; al-Shāshī, Musnad,
3:223, no. 1325.