212 Alfred von Kremer^s edition of Waqidy. [No. 3. 



and because they were Dot at the same time communicated to him 

 verbally, he did not avail himself of tbem. But Sofyan Thawry was 

 altogether a very eccentric man. Al-A'raj (d. in 117) who used to 

 copy the Qoran was induced by Zohry also to write down traditions, 

 but as soon as he had learned them by-heart he tore them up 

 ( ***jJ\ijy<>). The great boast in those days was, to know as many 

 traditions by-heart as possible. From the earliest time however^ 

 they assisted memory by keeping notes. This we are told was done 

 by Zayd and Ziyad. In ' A.bd al-IZaqq Dehlawy's Maddrij, Vol. II. p. 

 284, occurs a very important passage bearing on this subject, which 

 is taken from the Mawahib, Vol. I. p. 304, " Waqidy states, giving 

 his isnad up to 'Ikrimah (a client and a pupil of Ibn 'Abbas, d. in 

 107), that he ('Ikrimah) said, I found the following letter among 

 the books (v^) of I° n Abbas (was born three years before the 

 Hijrah and died in 68) after his death, and I copied it." 



But these notes were only intended to be used privately on the 

 sly, for they were almost ashamed to be obliged to have recourse to 

 them, and they were seldom arranged and not intended to be pro- 

 pagated by the process of transcription only. But genealogies and 

 lists of names, it seems, were made use of without reserve even by 

 the most prejudiced and conceited. It is related of Zohry that he 

 used a genealogical table of his tribe and family. 



Ibn IsMq sometimes says in quoting Zohry {£j&y\ ^^^ and 

 sometimes tsj^l/* (in Vol. I. pp. 149, 404 and passim. In page 

 130, he uses this expression also in reference to information received 

 from 'Orwah, saying, Bj/Lr^). T ne y were rather strict in those 

 days in distinguishing between the terms which they used to indicate 

 the manner, in which they received a tradition, and writers on the 

 canons of historical criticism hold that^i without the addition of 

 ^ or LU does not imply that a man has heard the tradition from 

 the shaykh quoted, or that he received it in any manner from him- 

 self \ and I suspect, that wherever Ibn IsMq uses this term, he 

 found a tradition in books or writings only, and perhaps second-hand. 

 Even where he says ^^^ it does not imply that he obtained it 

 orally. He may have received it orally and in writing or in writing 

 only, but from the informant himself. 



-ffajy Khalyfah, iZalaby and others say that Zohry left a work 

 on the biography of Mohammad, and Sohayly several times quotes 



