324 Origin and progress of writing down historical facts. [No. 4, 



82. Hammad b. Salimah [who was the author of several works 

 vJuiLo!) w-^Le yt and d. 167] said : " that he used to go to his 

 Shaykh and heard ten 7iadythes, more or less, and impressed them in 

 his memory, then he went home and wrote them down."* 



83. Mo'atatnir relates, " My father wrote to me when I was at 

 Kiifah, Buy books v^ and write down knowledge, for wealth is 

 transitory, but knowledge is lasting." 



84. 'Abd Allah b. Idrys says, "My father used to say to me, 

 Learn by heart, but attend above all to writing. "When you come 

 home, write, and if you fall iuto need, or your memory fails you, you 

 have your books." " With all that," he says, "I have not written 

 down any Aadythes ofLayth, or Ash'ath or A'mash." From this and 

 the preceding passage it would appear that books found a good market. 



85. Abu Cali^ Earra asked lbn al-Mobarak regarding the writ- 

 ing down ^adythes, and he answered, " If we had them not in writ- 

 ing we could not learn them by heart." 



86. Khalyl b. A^mad says : " Whatever I heard I wrote down, 

 and whatever I wrote down I learned by heart, and whatever I had 

 learned by heart I found useful." 



VIII. — Various Hadythes of the Khatyb Baghdddy bearing on the 

 value of books. 



87. U*j*\ M 4^ p* ^e* <J^ U*$j& *^s j fjuJ] v* !«>j*J| t^' U? 



" The prophet said according to Abu Darda that under the ' trea- 

 sure' mentioned in the verse of the Qoran 18, 81, volumes contain- 

 ing knowledge are to be understood which had been concealed by 

 the father of the two orphans for their use." 



Ibn 'Abbas, according to a ^adyth preserved by Bokbary and 

 others gives the same interpretation to that verse. 



88. f^o ^)\ L^sr*] UJSJti LsyJ* y-*S£\j+* ^ { y^i^ &o^l>i Jtf 



Dzu-1-Rummah [d. in 117] said to 'Tsa b. 'Omar [d. 149], Write 

 down my poetry, I like it better than if you learn it by heart. The 

 Bedouins forget a word, in search of which I have spent a restless 



* Dzohaby says : ***» ^ ^jH^' V^ ^ V^ *■*■**» U"? *^* V*i p 

 iZammad possessed no other book but that of Qays b. Sa'd [who was a companion 

 of the prophet and d. in GO]. 



