while the second is from Faryāb (1); both men are widely known, and they belong to nearly the same generation (2).
Or the opposite may occur (3): the personal names may differ (4) in pronunciation (5) yet be written the same way, while the fathers’ names coincide (6) both in script and in pronunciation (7). One example is Shurayḥ ibn al-Nuʿmān and Surayj (8) ibn al-Nuʿmān. The first name is spelled with a shīn and a ḥāʾ; he is a Successor who transmits from ʿAlī (9). The second is spelled with a sīn and a jīm, and he is one of al-Bukhārī’s teachers (10). This is the category that scholars call (11) al-mutashābih (“look-alike names”).
[Among the varieties of al-mutashābih]
The same applies if that coincidence (12) occurs in both the personal name and the father’s name, while the difference lies in the nisbah (13).
(1) In manuscript A the word appears as “Farmani,” but the reading adopted here is the correct one. Ibn Nasir al-Din, Tawdiḥ al-Mushtabih 7/92, writes: “al-Firyabi. Firyab—also called Farab—is a city in the Turkish lands … among its natives was Muhammad b. Aqil al-Firyabi, the jurist who later lived in Egypt.” Al-Qari, Sharḥ Sharḥ al-Nukhba, p. 704, adds: “Pronounced with kasra under the fa, a silent ra, then ya, followed by alif, then a ba with one dot, and finally the nisba ya.”
(2) A marginal note in manuscript L reads: “wahida” (one).
(3) Manuscript T has: “wa-bil-ʿaks” (and conversely).
(4) Manuscripts J, Z, and Y read: “yakhtalif” (differs); in manuscripts B and H the dots are missing.
(5) Manuscript K reads: “ka-an kanat al-asmaʾ takhtalif” (as though the names were different).
(6) Manuscript J reads: “wa-yattafiq” (and agree).
(7) Manuscript T adds: “wa-lafzan” (and in wording); a marginal note there adds: “wa-nuṭqan” (and in pronunciation).
(8) Manuscript B reads: “wa-Shurayḥ”; manuscripts J and Y read: “wa-Surayḥ.”
(9) Manuscript D inserts: “b. Abi Talib.”
(10) Manuscript T has: “ashyakh” (elders/teachers).
(11) The word “lahu” (for him) is absent from manuscript A.
(12) The word “thalika” (that) is missing from manuscript T; manuscripts H and M replace it with “baqiyya” (the remainder).
(13) From the phrase “wa-kadha in” up to this point is omitted in manuscripts B, J, D, and L, and appears slightly later in manuscript Y, as will be noted below.