74 SUNNA, 'PRACTICE' AND 'LIVING TRADITION' 

of an adulterer (Mā'iz); it must therefore be later. The isnad shows that it cannot be older than Sha'bī at the best; but the relative chronology of the traditions on this subject makes it impossible to assign it even this date.¹

Ṭaḥāwī, i. 241, gives several traditions in which Companions refer to the orders, or to the sunna, of the Prophet. Ṭaḥāwī remarks correctly that these traditions are Iraqian. They do indeed represent the Iraqian doctrine on the problem in question. The isnads of parallel versions and other indications enable us to date them to the beginning of the second century.

The earliest evidence for the Iraqian term 'sunna of the Prophet' occurs in a dogmatic treatise which Ḥasan Başrī wrote at the command of the Umayyad Caliph 'Abdalmalik, and which therefore cannot be later than the year 86.² The author shows himself bound, in a general way, by the example of the forebears (salaf) and refers explicitly to the sunna of the Prophet. But his actual reasoning is based exclusively on the Koran, and he does not mention any tradition from the Prophet or even from the Companions. It is only his adversaries who refer in general terms to the opinions of the Companions, and these they oppose to the unguided opinion (ra'y) of the individual. But the author also charges his opponents with ra'y, that is, arbitrary interpretation of the Koran.

We now come to statements of individual Iraqians on sunna. Abū Yūsuf, it is true, declines to accept Auzā'ī's general reference to the uninterrupted custom, questions the reliability of the unidentified persons on whose authority Auzā'ī claims the existence of a sunna, and asks for formal isnads.³ And the Hijazis, Abū Yūsuf says, 'when asked for their authority for their doctrine, reply that it is the sunna, whereas it is possibly only the decision of a market-inspector ('āmil al-sūq) or some provincial agent ('āmilum-mā min al-jihāt)'. But this is only part of the usual polemics between followers of the ancient schools, who do not hesitate to find fault with others for arguments which they use themselves.

Abū Yūsuf's own idea of sunna appears from Tr. IX, 5, where