(1) al-gharīb; (2) al-ʿazīz; (3) al-mashhūr.
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, Qatādah 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).
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 shuhrah is, accordingly, the number of narrators from prominent imāms, not the whole sanad, as is understood from the words of Ḥāfiẓ 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. ↩
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).
Ḥadīth, in the muḥaddithūn's classification, is of two categories: al-mutawātir and khabar al-wāḥid.
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.
