“Then clothe with pardon those whose mothers once nursed you, for pardon brings renown.

O best of those borne by dark bay steeds amid the fury of battle, when the blaze is kindled!

We hope for a pardon from you with which we may be clothed, O guide of mankind, when you pardon and prevail.

So pardon—may Allah pardon what you fear on the Day of Resurrection—when He grants you victory.”

When he heard this poetry, he said: ... and then mentioned it. Quraysh said, “Whatever belonged to us is for Allah and His Messenger,” and the Ansar said, “Whatever belonged to us is for Allah and His Messenger.”

Al-Tabarani said:

“It is not narrated from Zuhayr in its entirety except through this chain of transmission; Ubayd Allah ibn Rumahis alone narrated it.”

Al-Haythami said in Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid (6/187):

“Al-Tabarani narrated it in his three collections, and it contains narrators whom I do not know.”

I say: He meant this Ibn Rumahis and his teacher, Ziyad ibn Tariq.

As for the former, what he said about him is astonishing. Al-Dhahabi mentioned him in al-Mizan, on the authority of a number of transmitters besides al-Tabarani, including Abu Saʿid ibn al-Aʿrabi, and said:

“I have not seen any disparagement of him from the early authorities, yet he is not one upon whom reliance may be placed.”

Al-Hafiz rebutted him in al-Lisan, the gist of his response being that a group of people narrated from him, numbering fourteen in his count; thus, he is not unknown. This is despite his reporting from Abu Mansur al-Bawardi that he said, “Ubayd Allah and Ziyad are unknown,” and from ʿAli ibn al-Sakan: “Its chain of transmission is unknown.” Then al-Hafiz said: