in attributing the error to him, for all those above him are trustworthy. His shaykh, ʿAlī ibn Ḥamshādh al-ʿAdl, was a trustworthy hadith master, whose biography appears in Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (15/398). Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn al-Sakan was trustworthy, as al-Khaṭīb stated in al-Tārīkh (2/401). And Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr was likewise a trustworthy hadith master, and among the foremost authorities on his father ʿAbd Allāh’s hadith. Added to this are the numerous errors found in his Mustadrak, as is well known to the scholars. Thus, the error must be attributed to him.

As for the other one, his error has two aspects. The first is that he attributed to Abū Ḥātim something that is not found in his son’s book, al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl—unless he took it from another of his books, such as al-ʿIlal. But this is unlikely, for when al-Ḥāfiẓ related in Lisān al-Mīzān that he had transmitted the aforementioned statement from Abū Ḥātim, he followed it with the words:

“Al-Barzalī objected to al-Dhahabī’s attribution of this statement to Abū Ḥātim and said: What appears in Ibn Abī Ḥātim’s book, on his father’s authority, is: ‘acceptable in hadith.’”

I say: He mentioned this from his father in the biography of Mūsā ibn Sālim Abū Jaḥḍam, adding, after the words “acceptable in hadith”: “truthful.” Al-Dhahabī cited this in al-Mīzān following the first biography, where he also quoted Abū Ḥātim’s verdict, “truthful,” and named a number of scholars who declared him trustworthy. Thus, he distinguished between the two biographies. Likewise, in al-Mughnī he confined himself to the first and did not mention the other; rather, he cited it only in al-Kāshif, where he said: “truthful.” Al-Ḥāfiẓ followed him in al-Taqrīb. Aḥmad, Ibn Maʿīn, Abū Zurʿah, and Ibn Ḥibbān all declared him trustworthy.

The other aspect of al-Dhahabī’s error is that, even if we were to concede the correctness of the distinction you have cited from him, it would still not be valid to refute al-Ḥākim’s authentication on the basis of Mūsā ibn Sālim, whom Abū Ḥātim deemed weak;