and al-Isfahani (1) on the category that comes before it (2).
When a shaykh narrates from his own pupil, it is true that each of the two is transmitting from the other. But should such a report be called mudabbaj? The issue is debatable, and the more evident view is that it should not, because it belongs to the seniors-from-juniors category. The very word tadbīj is taken from the two “cheeks” (3)(4) of the face, which implies perfect symmetry on both sides—something missing here.
If a narrator transmits from someone who is below him in age, in the time of meeting (7), or in overall standing, that falls under the heading of seniors narrating from juniors. Included in this—being a more specific subset—are fathers narrating from their sons, Companions from Followers, a shaykh from his disciple, and the like.
The reverse situation is far more common; among its examples (8) is one who narrates “from his father (9) from his grandfather” (10), for this is the usual and most frequently traveled path.
(1) D reads “al-Asfahani.”
(2) That is, the book on peers, entitled Dhikr al-Aqran wa-Riwayatihim ʿan Baʿdihim Baʿdan; it is in print.
(3) A copy in the margin of L has “Dibaja.”
(4) See al-Sihah by al-Jawhari, 1/312.
(5) The narration of senior scholars from junior ones.
(6) The word “huwa” is absent from Y.
(7) T reads “al-liqaʾ.”
(8) A reads “wa-minhum.”
(9) A has “his son,” a scribal corruption.
(10) The phrase “wa-minhu: man rawa ʿan abihi ʿan jaddihi” (“and among them is someone who transmitted from his father, from his grandfather”) is omitted in B, J, Z, and H, and appears later in Y and L, as will be explained below.
Some commentators note that in certain reliable manuscripts this sentence is postponed and the following one placed before it. Al-Qari, in Sharh Sharh al-Nukhba (p. 640), states: “It is absent from some copies, while in others it is written after the words ‘kathra’ (abundance), as reported by his disciple; he then adds that the clause ‘wa-minhu man rawa ʿan abihi ʿan jaddihi’ ought to follow the words ‘li-annahu huwa al-jaddata al-masluka al-ghaliba’ (‘because that is the common, well-trodden path’).” Likewise, al-Laqani remarks in Qadaʾ al-Watar (p. 1398): “In our copy—and in many manuscripts that were read to the author, bear his handwriting, his corrections, his ijaza, and even his transmission in the handwriting of B (i.e., al-Biqai)—the clause is likewise postponed.” Accordingly, the passage should read: “(wa fi ʿaksihi kathratun) li-annahu huwa al-jaddata al-masluka al-ghaliba (wa-minhu: man rawa ʿan abihi ʿan jaddihi).”