THE IRAQIANS 233

could be taken as confirming the former, or the two attributions could be considered to contradict each other. We find, in fact, both attitudes expressed in legal traditions. For instance, 'Alqama b. Qais is made to call Ibn Mas'ūd his master (ṣāḥib) and to mention that Ibn Mas'ūd instructed him and his companions (Āthār A.Y. 777). Or it is reported that 'Alqama declared himself ignorant of the correct decision and that Ibn Mas'ūd gave it (Āthār Shaib. 79); at the same time, Ibn Mas'ūd's decision is also ascribed to Masrūq who counts as another of Ibn Mas'ūd's Companions (Āthār A.Y. 675), and a decision on a point of detail to 'Alqama himself (ibid. 676). On the other hand, 'Alqama is made to reject an opinion ascribed to Ibn Mas'ūd, by referring to a passage in the Koran.¹

The authority of the Companions of Ibn Mas'ūd was originally clearly distinct from that of Ibn Mas'ūd himself. They also transmit traditions from 'Alī,² and Ibn 'Abbās, the usual authority of the Meccans, is claimed to have approved a decision of their representative Masrūq.³ According to a later Ḥanafī opinion, they derived their doctrine 'from the specialists on law among the Companions of the Prophet, Ibn Mas'ūd, 'Alī, and 'Umar'.⁴ Shāfi'ī was unable to recognize a concept as informal as that of the Companions of Ibn Mas'ūd, and in discussing the traditional basis of the Iraqian doctrine he omitted to mention the Companions of Ibn Mas'ūd although they occurred in the Iraqian texts to which he referred.⁵

E. IBRĀHĪM NAKHA'Ī

Ibrāhīm Nakha'ī who lived in the second half of the first century A.H. is the representative scholar of the Kufians.⁶ In one passage, where one would expect Ibrāhīm to be mentioned, Shāfi'ī refers not to him but to Sha'bī;⁷ but this text gives an artificially simplified and systematized picture of the Iraqian doctrine.⁸ The full importance of Ibrāhīm for the transmission