1899 — “The cure for sciatica is the fat tail of a Bedouin sheep: it is melted, then divided into three portions, and drunk on an empty stomach over three days—one portion each day.”

Ibn Mājah (3463), al-Ḥākim (4/206), and Ibn ʿAsākir (15/122/1) narrated it through al-Walīd ibn Muslim: Hishām ibn Ḥassān narrated to us; Anas ibn Sīrīn narrated to us that he heard Anas ibn Mālik relate it, tracing it back to the Prophet. Al-Ḥākim said: “Authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.” Al-Dhahabī agreed with him, and it is as they said.

Aḥmad (3/219) also narrated it: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī narrated to us; Hishām ibn Ḥassān narrated to us through the same chain, with similar wording. He said: “The fat tail of a black Arabian ram, neither large nor small.” Its chain is also authentic.

Al-Muʿtamir corroborated him, saying: “I heard Hishām ibn Ḥassān narrating it from Anas.” Thus, he did not mention Anas ibn Sīrīn in it, and I do not know whether this is how it was transmitted or whether his name has fallen out of the manuscript. Al-Ḥākim narrated it.

Ḥammād ibn Salamah differed from them, saying: from Anas ibn Sīrīn, from Maʿbad ibn Sīrīn, from a man among the Anṣār, from his father, tracing it back to the Prophet. Aḥmad (5/78) narrated it, and al-Ḥākim cited it without a complete chain, saying: “Ḥammād ibn Salamah rendered it with a double break. In our view, the correct version is that of al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān and al-Walīd ibn Muslim.” This is correct.

Nasā—pronounced like ʿaṣā (“staff”)—is defined in al-Nihāyah as: “A vein that emerges from the hip and passes inward …”