It has been narrated to us from Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Manda, the Ḥāfiẓ of Iṣfahān:
Al-gharīb in ḥadīth is, for example, a ḥadīth of al-Zuhrī, Qatāda, and their like among the imāms whose ḥadīth is collected:1 when a single man takes a ḥadīth from them in solitary fashion, it is called gharīb (literally, strange, or one who is alone).2
That is, because the prominence of these imāms entails the prominence of their narrations; for this reason the muḥaddithūn in most cases focus on the number of those who narrate from these imāms and on their respective grades. The basis of gharāba, ʿizza and shuhra is, accordingly, the number of narrators from prominent imāms, not the whole sanad, as is understood from the words of Ibn Ḥajar and other later scholars. And Allāh knows best. The label gharāba may also be applied to a ḥadīth when the solitary transmission extends down to the era of the codification of ḥadīth, that is, to the second century. And Allāh knows best. ↩
Muqaddimat Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, p. 163. Example of gharīb: a ḥadīth narrated by Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna, from Misʿar ibn Kidām, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Burda, from his father, who said: "Ibn ʿUmar said to me: 'Did you know that my father met your father?'" the ḥadīth. Al-Dāraquṭnī said: gharīb in respect of Misʿar's narration from Saʿīd; Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna alone narrated it from him. ↩
When a body of narrators take a ḥadīth from a prominent imām, it is called mashhūr (literally, well-known, publicised).
When two or three transmitters share a ḥadīth from a prominent imām, it is called ʿazīz (literally, rare; or strong, intense).
Al-muttaṣil (also called al-mawṣūl) is that whose chain of transmission is unbroken: every narrator has heard the report from the one above him, all the way back to its source.
Scholars differ on the precise definition of al-munqaṭiʿ; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr makes it the broadest category, while for the mutaqaddimūn and the fuqahāʾ it is identical with al-mursal.
