In charge of the Prophet's ﷺ mount, and Mura said, in charge of the Prophet's ﷺ baggage, was a man called Karkara. He died, and the Prophet ﷺ said, "He is in the Fire."They went and looked, and found upon him a cloak he had taken from the spoils, and Mura said, or a garment he had taken from the spoils.
حدثنا سفيان عن عمرو عن سالم بن أبي الجعد
وكان على رحل وقال مرة على ثقل النبي ﷺ رجل يقال له كركرة فمات فقال هو في النار فنظروا فإذا عليه عباءة قد غلها وقال مرة أو كساء قد غله
Its chain of transmission is sahih. Amr is Ibn Dinar. Salim bin Abu Jaad is a trustworthy tabii, whose reliability was already established at 439, and we add here that Bukhari gave his biography in al-Kabir 2/2/108, and mentioned that he heard from Abdullah bin Umar. Ibn Saad also gave his biography in al-Tabaqat 6:203, and said, He was trustworthy and narrated much hadith.The hadith was narrated by Bukhari 6:130, and Ibn Majah 2:102, both through Sufyan bin Uyayna, with this same chain. Ibn Kathir cited it in al-Tarikh 5:319 from this very passage of the Musnad.Regarding the wording at the beginning of the hadith, "wa kana" (and he was) etc., this is how it appears in the manuscripts, with the conjunction "wa" retained and without any word such as "qala" or the like preceding it. Such a pattern occurs frequently in hadiths. As for the two narrations of Bukhari and Ibn Majah, both begin with "kana" (he was) etc., and likewise in what Ibn Kathir quoted from the Musnad. Perhaps this latter form is due to an alteration by the copyist or the printer.Al-thiql, with two fatha vowels, means the dependents and whatever baggage is heavy to carry.Karkara, Hafiz said in al-Fath, Waqidi mentioned that he was black, and that he used to hold the mount of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ during battle. Abu Saeed Nisaburi narrated in Sharaf al-Mustafa that he was Nubian, given as a gift to the Prophet by Hawdha bin Ali al-Hanafi, the ruler of Yamama, and the Prophet then freed him. Baladhuri mentioned that he died still in slavery. See al-Isabah 5:300.Karkara is pronounced with both kafs having a kasra, though some say both have a fatha, with the first ra being unvoweled (sakin). Bukhari, in al-Sahih, after his narration of the hadith from Ali bin Madini from Sufyan, said, Ibn Salam said, "Karkara," meaning with a fatha on the kaf, and it is vowelled thus, meaning that his teacher Muhammad bin Salam narrated it from Sufyan bin Uyayna with a fatha on both kafs.Qadi Iyad related the disagreement over its vowelling in Mashariq al-Anwar 1:352, but he erred, and the transmission got reversed for him, for he said, "with a kasra on both kafs, and also with a fatha on them, with the first ra unvoweled." Bukhari did mention the disagreement on this matter, saying that the majority say it with a fatha, while Ibn Salam says it with a kasra. The correct position is the opposite of what he stated, that the majority say it with a kasra, while Ibn Salam says it with a fatha, as is the explicit wording of Bukhari's statement, and as is established by the vowel-marking in the Yuniniyyah manuscript. Qastallani 5:147 stated explicitly that he saw the vowelling in both the branch copy and the original of the Yuniniyyah as a kasra on both kafs in the first route, that is, the main text of the hadith, and a fatha on them in the second route, that is, the report attributed to Ibn Salam. This is likewise how it appears in the Sultani printing of Sahih Bukhari 4:74-75.