Section Fifty-Two
Epithets

Epithets are many, and anyone unfamiliar with them may assume they are personal names, thus counting as two separate individuals the man who is cited by his given name in one place and by his epithet in another. Several scholars have produced monographs on the subject. If the bearer of an epithet disliked it, using it is impermissible; if he did not object, its use is allowed. What follows is a brief sampling:

• Muʿāwiyah al-Ḍāll ("the Stray"): he once lost his way on the road to Mecca.
• ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Ḍaʿīf ("the Frail"): he was physically weak.
• Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl Abū al-Nuʿmān, nicknamed ʿĀrim: he was completely removed from ʿarāmah, which means corruption.
• Ghundar: an epithet shared by several men, all named Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar—the first a companion of Shuʿbah; the second a transmitter from whom Abū Ḥātim narrated; the third, from whom Abū Nuʿaym narrated; the fourth, from whom Abū Khalīfah al-Jumaḥī and others narrated; and others besides them.
• Ghanjār: two men from Bukhārā bore this nickname—ʿĪsā ibn Mūsā, a transmitter from Mālik and al-Thawrī, and the second, the author of the city’s history.
• Ṣāʿiqah ("Thunderbolt"): Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, so called because of the power of his memory; al-Bukhārī narrated from him.
• Shabbāb ("Youth"): the epithet of Khalīfah, the historian.
• Zunayj—spelled with zāʾ and jīm—Abū Ghassān Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, a teacher of Muslim.
• Rastah: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Iṣfahānī.
• Sunayd: al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwūd.
• Bundār: Muḥammad ibn Bashshār.
• Qayṣar ("Caesar"): Abū al-Naḍr Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim.
• al-Akhfash ("the Squint-Eyed"): a title carried by several grammarians—Aḥmad ibn ʿImrān (an early scholar); Abū al-Khiṭāb, mentioned in Sībawayh; Saʿīd ibn Masʿadah, from whom Sībawayh’s Kitāb is transmitted; and ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān, the associate of Thaʿlab and al-Mubarrad.
• Murabbaʿ: Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm.
• Jazarah: Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad.
• ʿUbayd ʿIjil (indefinite, with tanwīn): al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad.
• Kilayjah: Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ.
• Mā Ghammah: this refers to ʿAllān, namely ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad; the two are sometimes combined as “ʿAllān Mā Ghammah.”
• Sijjādah ("Prayer-Carpet"): most notably al-Ḥasan ibn Ḥammād; another bearer is al-Ḥusayn ibn Aḥmad.
• ʿAbdān Allāh: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān and others.
• Mushkandānah and Muṭīn.

Allah knows best.