254 THE TRADITIONISTS

said them or not,' and: 'Whatever good sayings there are, I said them.'¹

The traditionists are naturally specialists in the transmission and study of traditions and in the criticism of their isnāds; they decide which traditions are transmitted by reliable authorities, they reject traditions which are badly attested, they do not regard mursal traditions as reliable, and they never acknowledge munqaṭi' traditions.² Traditions with imperfect isnāds, such as mursal and munqaṭi', are typical of the ancient schools of law, and the criticism of isnāds by the traditionists is primarily directed against the less exacting standards of the ancient schools.³ On the other hand, the traditionists accept 'isolated' traditions,⁴ whereas the ancient schools of law reject them;⁵ the creation and transmission of 'isolated' traditions from the Prophet was the main weapon of the traditionists. They are of course not necessarily in favour of every individual tradition from the Prophet, and may be found to reject such traditions for reasons of their own.⁶

Notwithstanding the high qualifications which were demanded, in theory, of a transmitter of traditions,⁷ the standards of reasoning of the traditionists in general were inferior to those of the ancient schools of law. Shāfi'ī complained repeatedly that their superficial and untrained adherence to traditions led them into error, and that their lack of systematic reasoning put them at a disadvantage; in particular, he disavowed those extreme traditionists who accepted all traditions indiscriminately.⁸

Shāfi'ī reports actual discussions with traditionists at some length in Ikh. 81 ff. and 88 ff. The traditionist gets the best of the argument in both cases, because Shāfi'ī feels obliged to adhere to the settled opinion on major points of ritual, although the evidence of traditions from the Prophet rather points to the contrary.⁹

Here and elsewhere the traditionists refer, besides traditions