the thigh.

The more eloquent usage is to call it al-nasā, not “the ʿirq al-nasā.” Al-Muʿjam al-Wasīṭ states: “Al-nasā is the sciatic nerve: a nerve extending from the hip to the ankle.”

1900 — “I witnessed the Alliance of the Perfumed Ones with my uncles when I was a boy, and I would not wish to possess red camels in exchange for breaking it.”

It was narrated by al-Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad (567), Ibn Ḥibbān (2062), al-Ḥākim (2/220), Aḥmad (1/190 and 193), al-Ṭabarī in his Tafsīr (9296), and Ibn ʿAdī (233/2), through several routes from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq, from al-Zuhrī, from Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, from his father, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, who reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it.

Al-Ḥākim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabī agreed with him. Ibn ʿAdī said: “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq—namely, ʿAbbād ibn Isḥāq al-Madanī—has some objectionable reports in his hadith which are not corroborated; yet his hadith is acceptable, as Ibn Ḥanbal said.”

I say: He is truthful and is among the narrators used by Muslim, as stated in al-Taqrīb. Ibn Ḥibbān then narrated a supporting report for it (2063), from ʿUmar ibn Abī Salamah, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, tracing it back to the Prophet, with similar wording. He added: “The Perfumed Ones were Hāshim, Umayyah, Zuhrah, and Makhzūm.”

I say: Its chain is unobjectionable as corroborative evidence.

The Alliance of the Perfumed Ones: al-Nihāyah states: “In the pre-Islamic era, the clans of Hāshim, Zuhrah, and Taym gathered in the house of Ibn Judʿān. They placed perfume in a bowl, dipped their hands in it, and pledged to support one another and to secure justice for the oppressed against the oppressor; hence they were called the Perfumed Ones.”