I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators of the two Shaykhs, apart from this Ibn Sayyār. Ibn Abī Ḥātim mentioned him (2/2/76) through the narration of this Marwān and of al-Qāsim ibn Mālik from him, without recording either criticism or accreditation of him. Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him in al-Thiqāt (7/17).

Al-Bukhārī cited al-Qāsim ibn Mālik’s narration in the entry on ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sayyār, through the chain mentioned above, with another hadith which I have cited in al-Ḍaʿīfah (5272), because Ibn Sayyār was alone in narrating it and there was no supporting report to reinforce and strengthen it. As for this report, it has come through another route and two supporting reports, all of which I cited earlier under hadith 1687. I had also cited this route there through Aḥmad’s narration, but Ibn Sayyār’s name appeared therein as ʿUbayd Allāh, in the diminutive form; thus, neither I nor al-Ḥusaynī nor al-ʿAsqalānī could identify him. This narration of Ibn Rāhūyah clarified for us that his name had been corrupted in Aḥmad’s version, and that the correct name is ʿAbd Allāh, rather than ʿUbayd Allāh; that he is known through the narration of two trustworthy transmitters from him; and so I have reproduced it through this rare narration, which Imam Ibn Rāhūyah preserved for us in his Musnad. May Allah reward him and all the imams with goodness.

2720 — “The Sunnah rite for a boy is two sheep, and for a girl, one sheep.”

Ibn Rāhūyah narrated it in his Musnad (4/109/2): ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs informed us: ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī Sulaymān informed us, from ʿAṭāʾ, who said: A woman said in the presence of ʿĀʾishah, “If the wife of so-and-so gives birth, we shall slaughter a camel for the child.” ʿĀʾishah said, “No; rather, the Sunnah...” Then he mentioned the hadith.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, provided that ʿAṭāʾ—who was ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ the Meccan—heard it from ʿĀʾishah, for Aḥmad said: