[al-muttafiq wa’l-muftariq] (identical yet distinct)
Next, with respect to the transmitters: when their given names and the names of their fathers—and those further up the line—are identical while the persons themselves are different, whether the coincidence involves two of them or (1) more, and likewise when two or more people share the same kunyah (2) or the same nisbah (lineage) (3), this constitutes the category that is called (4) al-muttafiq (5) wa’l-muftariq.
The benefit of knowing this category is to guard against (6) assuming that two separate individuals are one and the same.
Al-Khatib (8) authored (7) a comprehensive (9) book on the subject, which I have abridged and considerably expanded (10).
This is the converse of the previously discussed category called al-muhmal, for in that case the concern is that one narrator might be thought to be two, whereas here the concern is that two narrators might be taken for one.
(1) In manuscripts B, C, and W the reading is “aw” (or).
(2) Manuscript A has “al-tasmiyah” (the naming).
(3) Manuscript K reads “fi al-nisbah” (regarding lineage); another copy, in its margin, has “fi al-kunyah wa-l-nisbah” (regarding the kunyah and the lineage).
(4) The word lahu (for him) is missing from manuscript D.
(5) Manuscript B has al-mutafaqu with a fatḥah on the fāʾ; the adopted reading follows C, D, W, and H. Al-Qari states in his Sharḥ Sharḥ al-Nukhbah (p. 697) that it should be read with a kasrah.
(6) Manuscript A reads “wa-fāʾidatu maʿrifati ḥusnihi” (and the benefit of knowing its soundness), which is a corrupt reading.
(7) The word fīhi (in it) is absent from manuscript M.
(8) Manuscript D has the phrase “al-Khatib fīhi,” with the two words transposed.
(9) He entitled the work al-Mutafaq wa-l-Muftariq; it is in print.
(10) Al-Sakhawi says in Fatḥ al-Mughīth (4:266): “Our shaykh began to abridge it and, as far as I have seen, wrote only a little of it, even though in his Sharḥ al-Nukhbah he claims to have abridged it and added many new points. I have started completing it, supplying matters he overlooked.” See also al-Jawāhir wa-l-Durar (2:680).