Next, with regard to the narrators: when their personal names and their fathers’ names—and those further up the line—are identical⦗1⦘ while the individuals themselves are different, the case is known as al-muttafiq wa’l-muftariq (identical names, different persons). If the names coincide in spelling but differ in pronunciation⦗2⦘, this is al-muʾtalif wa’l-mukhtalif. Should the personal names match yet the fathers’ names differ, or vice-versa⦗3⦘, the type is called al-mutashābih⦗4⦘; the same applies when both the name and the father’s name correspond⦗5⦘ but the nisbah⦗6⦘ is different⦗7⦘.
From this and from the previous categories, further sub-types⦗8⦘ emerge—for example, where the agreement or the resemblance⦗9⦘ fails in only one or two letters, or results from transposition⦗10⦘, and the like⦗11⦘.
(1) The phrase “fa-saʿidan” (and upward) is missing in MSS Ha and H.
(2) MS B reads “fa-in” (for indeed).
(3) MS Z has “ikhtalafa” (differed).
(4) MS J reads “al-mushabah,” which is a scribal corruption.
(5) The word “dhalika” (that) is absent from MS H.
(6) MSS J and D read “ismin wa-ismi ab” (a name and a father’s name) instead of “fi al-ism wa-ismi al-ab” (in the name and the father’s name).
(7) The entire clause “wa-kadhā in waqaʿa dhālika al-ittifāq fi al-ism wa-ismi al-ab, wa-l-ikhtilāf fi al-nisbah” (Likewise, if that agreement occurs in the name and the father’s name while differing in the lineage) is omitted in MSS B and Z.
(8) MSS J, D, and Z read “wa-yarkab” (and it is compounded). The author states in Nuzhat al-Nazar: “wa-yutrakab minhu” (and it is built from it).
(9) MS Ha reads “wa-l-ishtibāh” (and confusion).
(10) MSS B, Ha, and W have “aw al-taʾkhīr” (or postponement).
(11) MSS W and Z read “aw nahw” (or the like).