the completion of thirty years, the noble grandson of the Messenger of Allah, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, brought about reconciliation between two factions of the believers by relinquishing the caliphate in the year 41, in the month of Jumādā al-Ākhirah. It was called the Year of Unity, because the people united behind Muʿāwiyah, who was the first of the kings. In the hadith recorded by Muslim: “There will be a caliphate of Prophethood and mercy; then there will be kingship and mercy; then there will be coercive kingship; then there will be hereditary kingship....”

I have found two corroborating reports for the two hadiths:

The first is narrated from Abū Bakrah al-Thaqafī. Al-Bayhaqī recorded it in al-Dalāʾil through ʿAlī ibn Zayd, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakrah, from his father, with similar wording.

The other is narrated from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī. Al-Wāḥidī recorded it in al-Wasīṭ (3/126/2) through Shāfiʿ ibn Muḥammad, who said: Ibn al-Washshāʾ ibn Ismāʿīl al-Baghdādī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabāḥ narrated to us; Hushaym ibn Bashīr narrated to us, from Abū al-Zubayr, from him, with similar wording.

In the first chain is ʿAlī ibn Zayd—namely, Ibn Judʿān—who had poor retention; it is therefore suitable for corroboration. In the other are Shāfiʿ ibn Muḥammad and Ibn al-Washshāʾ ibn Ismāʿīl al-Baghdādī, neither of whom I could identify; perhaps the manuscript contains a corruption.

In sum, the hadith is good through the route of Saʿīd ibn Jumḥān and authentic by means of these two