…small-eyed, their faces like hammered shields, their sandals made of hair.’ (1)(2) Others have transmitted the same report from ʿAbd al-Razzāq.

It is related that Imām Aḥmad said: ‘ʿAbd al-Razzāq was mistaken when he said “Khūzan” with a khāʾ; it should be with a jīm: Jūzan and Kirmān—two well-known towns in the East. (3) Allah knows best.’

Imām Aḥmad also said: ‘Sufyān related to us, from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd, from Abū Hurayrah, who attributed it to the Prophet ﷺ: “The Hour will not come until you fight a people whose faces are like hammered shields, whose sandals are of hair.” This was reported by all the major compilers except al-Nasā’ī through the narration of Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah. (4)’

Al-Bukhārī said: ‘ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to us; Sufyān [ibn ʿUyaynah] related to us. He said: Ismāʿīl told me that Qays said: We came to Abū Hurayrah —may Allah be pleased with him—who said, “I kept company with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for three years, and never in my life was I more eager to memorize ḥadīth than I was in those years. I heard him say”—and he gestured with his hand—“Just before the Hour you will fight a people whose sandals are of hair; they are this al-Bāriz.” Sufyān once said: “They are the people of al-Bāriz.” (5)’

Muslim also narrated it: through Abū Kurayb, from Abū Usāmah and Wakīʿ, both from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, from Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim, from Abū Hurayrah, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘The Day of Resurrection will not come until you fight a people whose sandals are of hair, whose faces are like hammered shields—red-faced and small-eyed.’ (6)

I [the author] say: As for the statement attributed to Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah that they are “the people of al-Bāzir,” the version most widely transmitted puts the rāʾ before the zāy; it is probably a scribal error, and what is meant is al-Bāriz, which in their language means “the marketplace.” Allah knows best.

Imām Aḥmad further said: ‘ʿAffān related to us; Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim related to us; I heard al-Ḥasan say: ʿAmr ibn Taghlib related to us, saying: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “Among the portents of the Hour is that you will fight a people whose sandals are of hair—or who wear hair as sandals—and among the portents of the Hour is that you will fight a people broad-faced, as though their faces were hammered shields.” (7)’

Al-Bukhārī likewise recorded it: from Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb, from Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim, with this same chain. (8)