three times. I said, “Who is this man for whose sake you have silenced me?!” He said, “This is a man who does not love falsehood—this is ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab.”

It was recorded by al-Bukhari in al-Adab al-Mufrad (342)—this is its wording—by al-Tahawi in abridged form, by Ahmad (3/435), and likewise by al-Hakim (3/461 and 615)—the additional wording is found in both of them—and also by al-Tabarani (1/nos. 842 and 843), through the route of ‘Ali ibn Zayd, from ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakrah, with this narration.

I say: This chain of transmission is weak, having two defects:

The first is a break between this ‘Abd al-Rahman and al-Aswad ibn Sari‘, as Ibn Mandah explicitly stated. Al-Hafiz mentioned in al-Tahdhib, in al-Aswad’s biographical entry, that al-Hasan and this ‘Abd al-Rahman narrated from him, then followed it with the statement:

“Ibn Mandah said: Their hearing from him is not established. He died around the time of the Battle of the Camel, in 42 AH.

I say: Al-Dhahabi followed him in this statement ...”

He then critiqued this, the substance of his response being that the Battle of the Camel took place in 36 AH, without disagreement, and that Ahmad and Ibn Ma‘in stated that he died in 42 AH.

I say: Whether he died in that year—which is the view to which we incline, for the reasons mentioned above—or in the preceding year, I see no basis for the break alleged by Ibn Mandah. This ‘Abd al-Rahman was born in Basra in 14 AH, and thus certainly lived to meet al-Aswad. For even if we assume that al-Aswad died in 36 AH, ‘Abd al-Rahman would then have been 22 years old; whereas, according to what we consider more likely, he would have been 28 years old. Moreover, al-Aswad had settled in Basra and preached there. Perhaps for this reason, when al-Hafiz al-Mizzi and others wrote his biographical entry and mentioned those from whom he narrated—