Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamzah al-Dimashqī narrated to me: My father narrated to me from his father, from Abū ʿAmr al-Awzāʿī, from Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭarīf, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Yaʿlā, from him, with similar wording.

Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Duʿāʾ (2/1293/1058) and al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ (1/4/1/43); and Abū Nuʿaym narrated it from al-Ṭabarānī in Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah (p. 149). Al-Ṭabarānī said: “No one narrated it from al-Awzāʿī except Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamzah, and his son was alone in narrating it from him.”

Al-Haythamī said in al-Majmaʿ (10/128): “Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Ṣaghīr, and it includes someone I did not recognize!” This reference to al-Ṣaghīr is how it appears there, but it is a typographical error; the correct reading is al-Awsaṭ. One of the youngsters previously referred to failed to notice this error, thereby giving the impression that the printed edition contained no mistake, since he cited only the statement, “and it includes someone I did not recognize!”—and endorsed it.

It appears that al-Haythamī meant al-Ṭabarānī’s shaykh, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dimashqī, and his father. This is a remarkable oversight on his part, for Ibn Ḥibbān included his father, Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamzah al-Dimashqī, in al-Thiqāt (9/74), where he impugned this son of his, Aḥmad, saying: “He narrates from his father, and the people of Syria narrated from him. He is trustworthy in himself, but what Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥamzah and his brother ʿUbayd narrated from him should be avoided, for they used to insert anything into his books.”

It is well known among those engaged in this discipline that al-Haythamī deserves primary credit for