Ahmad 4981

Its chain of transmission is sahih. Hisham bin Saad is Talaqani Bazzar, a resident of Baghdad, trustworthy. Ahmad, Ibn Saad, and others attested to his reliability, and Bukhari gave his biography in Kabir 4/196/2. His father's name in Tahdhib, Taqrib, and Khulasa is Saeed. However, it is established in the three original manuscripts here as Saad, with the ya omitted, so we have adopted what is in them, giving preference to the fact that in some manuscript copies of Tarikh al-Kabir it appears as Saad, as its editor noted in his commentary on it. It is likewise established in some manuscript copies of Manaqib Ahmad by Ibn Jawzi, as its editor confirmed on page 52. It is established in Tabaqat Ibn Saad 7/86/2 and Tarikh Baghdad by Khatib 14:46 as Saeed with the ya, but we were unable to rely on this in weighing the matter, for fear that the editing might not have been precise in noting the variation between copies, especially in a name so close in form and easily confused as this one.Muawiya bin Salam bin Abu Salam Mamtur Habashi is trustworthy. Ahmad, Ibn Main, Abu Zura, and others attested to his reliability. Ajli claimed that Yahya bin Abu Kathir handed him a book which he neither read nor heard directly, but this claim is baseless, for he has explicitly stated here that he heard directly from Yahya, and when a trustworthy narrator explicitly states that he heard directly, such talk cannot be used to reject him. This is why, when Bukhari gave his biography in Kabir 4/335/1, he affirmed decisively that he heard from Yahya bin Abu Kathir.The hadith is abridged, 4815, 4866.