hadith in establishing the prohibition, especially because Ibn Ḥazm and those who echoed him construed it in a way that nullifies its purport. Hence this sound hadith blocks their attempt to overturn its indication, as will be shown, for the reports of the Prophet clarify and reinforce one another, as is evident.

In any event, the ḥāfiẓ’s documentation is far better than what ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Subkī produced in his biography of Shaykh al-Ghazālī in Tabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyyah al-Kubrā. There, in 4/145-182, he devoted a section to the traditions quoted in the Iḥyāʾ for which he could find no chain of transmission. On p. 158 he lists this very exception with the heading: “The hadith that forbids al-malāhī, al-awtār, and al-mazāmīr (musical diversions, stringed instruments, and flutes).” It is most surprising that even al-Bukhārī’s report eluded him. He dealt with other narrations in the same way, denying that they had any basis—such as the hadith, “No one raises his voice in song except that Allah sends two devils who sit on his shoulders….” Al-Ṭabarānī and others transmitted it, and I have traced it in al-Ḍaʿīfa 931; it will appear again on p. 68.

The same applies to the report in which he said to ʿĀʾishah, “Would you like to watch the Abyssinians’ spear-dance?” This is an authentic narration, recorded by al-Nasāʾī and others; I have documented it in Ādāb al-Zifāf 272-275 alongside her report in the Two Ṣaḥīḥs, to which I had added many sound variants preserved by other scholars. I later gave it a separate entry in al-Ṣaḥīḥa because al-Subkī rejected it, together with other narrations listed there under no. 3277.

To conclude our verification of the hadiths that forbid the drum, it is worth noting that Imām Aḥmad regarded them as sound; al-Khallāl related this in his book al-Amr bi-l-Maʿrūf.