among the valuable material preserved for us by Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī—may Allah have mercy on him. I do not know why he did not address it by mentioning all those who transmitted it through the other chain and who declared it weak, such as al-Nawawī, al-ʿAsqalānī, and even al-Zaylaʿī, when he was most in need of doing so to support his Hanafi school. The distinguished annotator remedied this omission, citing al-Ḥāfiẓ in al-Fatḥ as saying, “Its chain is strong.” However, I have not presently found this in its expected places in al-Fatḥ. And Allah knows best.

Its strength is further increased by what ʿAbd al-Razzāq (5686) narrated from al-Thawrī, from Abū Isḥāq, from ʿAlqamah and al-Aswad ibn Yazīd: Ibn Masʿūd would pronounce nine takbīrs at each of the two Eid prayers: four before the recitation, then he would pronounce a takbīr and bow; in the second rakʿah, he would recite, and when he had finished, he would pronounce four takbīrs and then bow. Its chain is authentic, as Ibn Ḥazm and others stated.

Ibn Abī Shaybah (2/173) and al-Ṭaḥāwī, in Sharḥ al-Maʿānī (4/348), also narrated it: Sufyān narrated from Abū Isḥāq, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Mūsā; and Ḥammād narrated from Ibrāhīm that one of the governors of Kūfah—Sufyān said, “One of them was Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ,” while the other said, “al-Walīd ibn ʿUqbah”—sent for ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qays, meaning Abū Mūsā. He said, “This Eid has come; what is your view?” They referred the matter to ʿAbd Allāh, who said, “He pronounces nine takbīrs: one takbīr with which he opens the prayer, then three further takbīrs; then he recites a surah, then pronounces a takbīr and bows. He then rises and recites a surah, then pronounces four takbīrs, one of which is the takbīr for bowing.”

It is authentic through the route of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Mūsā. He was a trustworthy mukhadram narrator, one who lived in both the pre-Islamic and Islamic eras. It is likewise authentic through the route of Ibrāhīm, who was Ibrāhīm ibn Yazīd al-Nakhaʿī. Although he did not hear directly from Ibn Masʿūd, it is known from his biography that whatever mursal reports he narrated from him are authentic.