TRADITIONS IN ANCIENT SCHOOLS OF LAW. 35

scholars as pertinent to the question of whether to accept or to reject a tradition from the Prophet.¹ Ibn Qutaiba, 63, relates that Auza'i used to blame Abu Hanifa not because he followed his personal opinion (ra'y)—since, he said, all of us do so—but because, when confronted with a tradition from the Prophet, he diverged from it; if this is authentic, it does not go beyond the usual polemics between the schools and does not prove for Auzā'i an attitude to traditions different from that of the other ancient schools of law. Auza'i appears as the authority of Abū Hanifa for several traditions from the Prophet in Āthar Shaib., and he himself knows a Basrian tradition from 'Umar.²