he said: “Ibn Hajar praised him highly”!

Second: Al-Haythami cited the hadith in Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid (4/113), in al-Bazzar’s shorter version, and said after it:

“Al-Tabarani also narrated it in al-Muʿjam al-Awsat, except that he said: ‘Return it to its owner and sell it for cash; then buy the dates.’ Its chain of transmission is good.”

The typesetter omitted the mention of al-Bazzar. The correct wording is: “It was narrated by [al-Bazzar and] al-Tabarani …”

Dr. al-Tahhan did not notice this omission in his annotation to al-Muʿjam al-Awsat (2/231), but reproduced it exactly as he saw it in al-Majmaʿ, without any comment! Before him, Shaykh al-Aʿzami did likewise in his annotation to al-Haythami’s Zawaʾid al-Bazzar; but, to add insult to injury, he remarked (2/108):

“Al-Haythami did not attribute it to al-Bazzar, although it is found there word for word!”

This indicates the extent of his heedlessness. Otherwise, he would not have said, “… word for word,” when al-Bazzar’s narration before him is shorter than al-Tabarani’s narration. Al-Haythami cited them both, except that the first was not attributed to al-Bazzar because of a typographical error. Had he noticed al-Haythami’s treatment of the matter, he would have avoided falling into these two errors: “word for word” and “al-Haythami did not attribute it”!!

Third: Kashf al-Astar omits al-Bazzar’s statement following the hadith:

“We know of no one who narrated it from Thabit other than Kathir.”

It is established in al-Hafiz’s Mukhtasar al-Zawaʾid (1/517). *