LessonsPeer and Reciprocal Narration, Senior-to-Junior Reports, and Earlier/Later PupilsQuiz

The pupils of the hadith master Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī included people whose death dates were exceptionally far apart. Abū ʿAlī al-Bardānī, among al-Silafī’s own teachers, heard a report from him and related it; al-Bardānī died around 500 AH.

Among the later hearers was al-Silafī’s grandson Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Makkī, who died in 695 AH. Their link to the same source, al-Silafī, therefore spans nearly two centuries between the death dates of these two transmitters.

Al-Bardānī is the sābiq, and Ibn Makkī the lāḥiq. The critical point is that access to the common teacher, each narrator’s age, and death chronology must be examined separately. A large gap in death dates is not by itself a proof that reception was impossible.

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Historical example: al-Silafī’s earlier and later pupils

Peer and Reciprocal Narration, Senior-to-Junior Reports, and Earlier/Later Pupils

The pupils of the hadith master Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī included people whose death dates were exceptionally far apart. Abū ʿAlī al-Bardānī, among al-Silafī’s own teachers, heard a report from him and related it; al-Bardānī died around 500 AH.

Among the later hearers was al-Silafī’s grandson Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Makkī, who died in 695 AH. Their link to the same source, al-Silafī, therefore spans nearly two centuries between the death dates of these two transmitters.

Al-Bardānī is the sābiq, and Ibn Makkī the lāḥiq. The critical point is that access to the common teacher, each narrator’s age, and death chronology must be examined separately. A large gap in death dates is not by itself a proof that reception was impossible.