Narrators' confusion (ikhtilat): trustworthy men who became confused

Ibn al-Salah and al-Nawawi make type sixty-two of the hadith sciences "knowing which trustworthy narrators became confused"; al-Nawawi calls it an important art on which no separate work was known, though it deserves one. ¹ In Tadrib al-Rawi al-Suyuti adds that al-Iraqi mentioned Salah al-Din al-Ala'i's work devoted to it, and that al-Hazimi wrote a short treatise on it which al-Suyuti had seen. ¹ The editor Muhammad Awwama adds that al-Ala'i's book has been printed with forty-six entries, that al-Busiri added a hundred and thirty-four in the margins of his copy, bringing the total to a hundred and eighty, and that Sibt Ibn al-Ajami wrote al-Ightibat on those accused of confusion. ¹

Al-Nawawi says: some became confused through senility, some through losing their sight, some for other reasons, and al-Suyuti gives the loss of one's books as an example. ¹ The rule is that what was narrated from them before the confusion is accepted, and what came after it, or what cannot be placed, is not; this is known by examining the narrators from them, that is, by separating those who heard early from those who heard late. ² Al-Nawawi closes the type with a principle: any such narrator relied on as proof in "the Sahih" is one whose narration there is known to predate the confusion. ³ The editor qualifies this: one must know how al-Bukhari and Muslim used the report — as proof, as a corroborating route, as supporting evidence, coupled with another narrator, or as a selection. ⁴

Ata ibn al-Sa'ib: confused late in life, so the critics relied on what the senior men such as al-Thawri and Shu'ba narrated from him; Ibn Ma'in even said that everyone else heard from him in his confusion, while al-Qattan, al-Nasa'i, Abu Dawud and al-Tahawi added Hammad ibn Zayd, most also excepted Hammad ibn Salama, and al-Uqayli said all the Basrans heard him confused because he came to them late in life. ^{2 5}

Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i: said to have become confused, which al-Dhahabi denied — "he aged and forgot but was not confused" — and Ibn Uyayna's hearing from him is said to come after it. ^{6 7}

Sa'id ibn Iyas al-Jurayri: his memory changed before his death, though not severely; al-Nasa'i and others said his narrations were objected to from the days of the plague, and Abu Dawud said that anyone who had met Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani heard sound material from him; the editor dates the plague to 132 and notes 145 as another date given for the change. ^{4 8}

Sa'id ibn Abi Aruba: confused for over ten years, or five; Yazid ibn Harun, Abda ibn Sulayman, Yahya al-Qattan, Yazid ibn Zuray' and others heard him before; Ibn Ma'in said the most reliable of his students was Abda; al-Mu'afa ibn Imran, Waki' and al-Fadl ibn Dukayn heard him during the confusion. ^{9 10}

Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Mas'udi: Abu Hatim said he became confused a year or two before his death; Ahmad said the confusion came in Baghdad, so those who heard him in Kufa or Basra heard well; Ibn Ma'in said those who heard him under al-Mansur heard soundly and those under al-Mahdi heard nothing of value; Ibn Hibban and Ibn al-Qattan were stricter and rejected all his hadith because the early could not be told from the late, but al-Iraqi said the sound view is otherwise. ^{10 11}

Rabi'a al-Ra'y, Malik's teacher: Ibn al-Salah said it was claimed he changed late in life; al-Iraqi replied that he had seen this nowhere else, that both Sahihs rely on him and the imams declared him trustworthy, and that only Ibn Sa'd spoke of him, saying people were wary of him because of his reliance on opinion. ¹²

Salih, client of al-Taw'ama: Ibn Ma'in said he became senile before he died; Ibn Hibban said he changed in 125 and his late hadith mixed with the early so that he deserved to be abandoned; al-Iraqi replied that the imams did distinguish some of it: Ibn Abi Dhi'b, Ibn Jurayj and others heard him early, while Malik and the two Sufyans heard him after. ^{13 14}

Husayn ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami of Kufa and Abd al-Wahhab al-Thaqafi: for Abu Hatim the first's memory worsened at the end, which Ali ibn Asim denied; the second became confused three or four years before death, but al-Dhahabi said this did his hadith no harm because he narrated nothing in that period, citing Abu Dawud that people were kept from him. ^{14 15}

Sufyan ibn Uyayna: Ibn al-Salah said he became confused two years before his death, on the basis of Yahya ibn Sa'id's words "I testify that Sufyan became confused in 197"; al-Iraqi called this an error, since he is known to have died in 198; al-Dhahabi doubted the report because Yahya ibn Sa'id himself died in Safar 198, and added: I think it most likely that all the teachers of the six imams heard from him before that. ^{15 16}

Abd al-Razzaq al-San'ani: he went blind late in life and would accept what he was prompted with, as Ahmad said, so that whoever heard him after the blindness heard weakly; Ahmad, Ibn Rahawayh, Ibn Ma'in, Ibn al-Madini and Waki' heard him before, al-Dabari and others after; Ibn al-Salah found very objectionable hadiths in what al-Tabarani narrated from al-Dabari from him and blamed them on this, and al-Iraqi suggested that those who relied on him did not mind the change because he narrated from his books. ^{16 17 18 19}

Arim, Muhammad ibn al-Fadl Abu al-Nu'man al-Sadusi: al-Bukhari said he changed late in life; Abu Hatim said whoever heard him in 220 heard well; al-Daraqutni said no objectionable hadith appeared from him after the confusion; Ibn Hibban said he became so confused he did not know what he was narrating, so that many objectionable reports entered his narration — a claim al-Dhahabi rejected. ^{19 20}

Later figures: Abu Qilaba Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad al-Raqashi, who narrated in Basra before his confusion and his move to Baghdad; Abu Ahmad al-Ghitrifi, whose confusion only al-Bardha'i reports and whom al-Iraqi thinks was confused with a namesake; Abu Tahir, grandson of Ibn Khuzayma, confused two and a half years before death, though for al-Dhahabi no one heard from him in that time; and Abu Bakr al-Qati'i, transmitter of the Musnad, whose alleged senility, reported by Ibn al-Furat, al-Dhahabi called exaggeration, and al-Iraqi doubted, adding that even if true, al-Hakim, al-Daraqutni, al-Barqani and Abu Ali al-Tamimi, who transmitted the Musnad from him, heard him while he was sound. ^{20 21 22 3}

Confusion is something that befalls a trustworthy narrator; it does not discard him wholesale but divides his hadith into what came before the change and what came after. Hence the critics' attention to the dates and places of hearing, as in Ahmad's remark that whoever heard al-Mas'udi in Kufa or Basra heard well. ¹⁰ It is thus bound up with criticism and vindication of narrators and with the dates of narrators.