literature;[361] and Katada (died 117 A.H.) was not a contemporary
witness of what he relates. Thus he fails in giving any authority to his
narration. There are two more traditions in Ibn Sad from similar
authorities like Katada, namely, Zohri (died 124 A.H.) and Mak-hool
(died 118 A.H.)--not contemporaries of Mohammad, but of the class of
Tabaeen--to the effect that Mohammad had said, "Had Ibrahim lived, the
capitation-tax would have been remitted to every Copt!" and that "Had
Ibrahim lived, his maternal uncles would never have been enslaved!" They
do not say who was Ibrahim!

Another and the last tradition in Ibn Sad through Yahia bin Hammad, Abu
Avana, Soleiman-al-Aamash, Muslim, and Bara is to the effect that
Ibrahim was born from a Coptic maid of the Prophet. The narrator
Soleiman-al-Aamash was a _modallis_ (_Takrib_ in loco), or in other
words, a liar. Besides the whole chain of the narration is _Mo-an-an_.

In none of the canonical collections of traditions like those of
Bokhari, Muslim, and others Ibrahim is said to have been born of Maria.
Therefore any of their traditions regarding Ibrahim is not against us.

It is also related in some genuine traditions that an eclipse of the sun
took place on the day of Ibrahim's death.[362] The historians have
related only one eclipse, which occurred in the sixth year of the
Hejira, when Mohammad was at Hodeibia. This shows that Ibrahim could not
be Maria's son. She only could come to Arabia a year later, as the
dispatches to several princes were sent only in the seventh year.
Yafaee, in his history _Mirat-uz-Zaman_, has noted that the sun was
eclipsed in the sixth year of the Hejira. In the tenth year, he
says,--"A genuine tradition has that the sun was eclipsed on the day of
Ibrahim's death, and it has been stated above that it was eclipsed in
the sixth year. There is some difficulty. It was noted once only during
the time of the Prophet. If it occurred twice, there is no difficulty;
and if not, one of these two events must be wrong, either the eclipse
took place in the tenth year, or the Prophet's son died in the sixth
year." But historically the eclipse was noticed only in the sixth year.
There are different dates of Ibrahim's death reported by the
biographers--the fourth, tenth, and fourteenth of lunar months, but in
none of them can an eclipse take place.

[Sidenote: The story of Haphsa and Maria a spurious one.]

13. (5) Lastly, I have to notice the infamous cal