It is well known that the turmoil and division in Kufa are attested by scriptural evidence and scholarly consensus, for the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Turmoil comes from here; turmoil comes from here; turmoil comes from here—from where Satan’s horn rises.”

This hadith is authentically established from him through several chains of transmission in the authentic hadith collections.

What further clarifies this matter is that knowledge consists of either transmitted reports or scholarly judgment. Of all the cities, Medina’s people are the soundest in both transmission and judgment. Their hadiths are the most authentic. Hadith scholars agree that the most authentic hadiths are those transmitted by the people of Medina, followed by those transmitted by the people of Basra. The hadiths transmitted by the people of Syria rank below these, for they did not possess the same continuity of transmission chains or precision in preserving the wording. Among these people—meaning the people of Medina, Mecca, Basra, and Syria—there were none known for lying, though some were precise in transmission and others were not.

As for the people of Kufa, lying was more prevalent among them than among the inhabitants of any other city. During the generation of the Successors, there were many people there who were known for lying, especially the Shia, who, as the scholars agree, were the most given to lying of all the sects. For this reason, it is reported that Mālik and other scholars of Medina would not use the bulk of the hadiths transmitted by the people of Iraq as evidence: they knew that there were liars among them, but could not distinguish the truthful from the liars. When, however, they knew a hadith to be true, they would use it as evidence. Thus Mālik narrated from Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī, who was an Iraqi, and he was asked