who gave him precedence (1) over Uthman. This question (2), however, is less clear-cut than the former.
For this reason, the leading authorities of [the people of] (3) the Sunnah, all of them (4), agreed on giving Abū Bakr and Umar precedence (5 through numerous independent lines of transmission 5) (5), [as is the position of Abū Hanīfa, al-Shāfiī, Mālik, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Thawrī, al-Awzāī, al-Layth ibn Sad, and all the other leading Muslim authorities among the scholars of jurisprudence, hadith, asceticism, and Quranic exegesis, both earlier and later] (6).
As for Uthmān and Alī, a group of the people of Medina suspended judgment between them (7). This is one of the two reports from Mālik. A group of the Kufans gave Alī precedence, and this is one of the two reports from [Sufyān] al-Thawrī (8). It was later said that he retracted that position when Ayūb al-Sakhtiyānī (9) met him and said, “Whoever gives Alī precedence over Uthmān has disparaged—”
(1) N and M read: “But a group of his Shia held that he should be given precedence … etc.”
(2) N reads: “*al-milla* (the creed),” which is an error.
(3) “The people of” is omitted from N and M.
(4) “All of them” is omitted from A and B.
(5) The passage marked (5–5) is omitted from A and B.
(6) The passage in brackets is omitted from N and M.
(7) [Missing siglum], M read: “*fīhā* (regarding it).”
(8) [Missing siglum], M read: “from al-Thawrī.” He was Sufyān ibn Masrūq al-Thawrī, Abū Abd Allāh, the imam known as the Commander of the Believers in hadith. He was born in 95 AH—although 96 and 97 have also been reported—and died in Basra in 161 AH. See his biography in *Wafayāt al-Ayān*, 2/127–128; *Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb*, 4/111–115; *Tabaqāt Ibn Sad*, 6/371–374; *Tārīkh Baghdād*, 9/151–174; and al-Ziriklī, *al-Alām*, 2/158.
(9) Abū Bakr Ayyūb ibn Abī Tamīma Kaysān al-Sakhtiyānī was one of the Successors and the foremost jurist of his age. He was born in 66 AH—or, according to another report, 68—and died in 131 AH. See his biography in *Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb*, 1/397–399; *Tabaqāt Ibn Sad*, 7/246–251; Ibn al-Athīr, *al-Lubāb*, 1/536; and al-Ziriklī, *al-Alām*, 1/382.