ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST TRADITIONS 47

be repealed by the sunna of the Prophet.¹ As Shafi'i identifies himself with the traditionists and shares their other arguments against the adherents of the ancient schools and the ahl al-kalām,² it is safe to assume that this extreme position of which I find no trace in Shafi'i's writings or before him, was taken or at least gained prominence only after his time.

The anti-traditionist attitude showed itself further in unwillingness to relate traditions from the Prophet, insistence on their small number, warnings against careless attribution of traditions to the Prophet, and similar considerations which were especially popular in Iraq.³ Statements to this effect voiced originally the opposition of the ancient Iraqians to the growing number of traditions from the Prophet and attempted to justify the Iraqians' customary reliance on later authorities. By an easy transition, this kind of reasoning could be adopted by the moderate traditionists and used by them as a proof of the care with which, they claimed, traditions from the Prophet had been transmitted.

Such arguments, however, could not prevent the growth of traditions from the Prophet, and the followers of the ancient schools had to explain away traditions which contradicted their own established doctrine. We have already given details of the interpretation of traditions from the Prophet as practised by Shafi'i and by the followers of the ancient schools,⁴ and are concerned here only with one particular aspect of their interpretative reasoning. This is the fact that the method of interpreting traditions, practised in the ancient schools, tended to disparage and reject traditions from the Prophet,⁵ whereas Shafi'i, by harmonizing interpretation, did his utmost to acknowledge and maintain them.⁶

According to Ikh. 328 ff., the Iraqians are inclined to look for contradictions in the traditions, and where two are contradictory to reject one.⁷ Shafi'i, who applies harmonizing interpreta-