y words of
the first narrator.

From very early times story-tellers and singers found their subjects in
the doughty deeds of the tribe on its forays, and sometimes in contests
with foreign powers and in the impression produced by the wealth and
might of the sovereigns of Persia and Constantinople. The appearance of
the Prophet with the great changes that ensued, the conquests that made
the Arabs lords of half the civilized world, supplied a vast store of
new matter for relations which men were never weary of hearing and
recounting. They wished to know everything about the apostle of God.
Every one who had known or seen him was questioned and was eager to
answer. Moreover, the word of God in the Koran left many practical
points undecided, and therefore it was of the highest importance to know
exactly how the Prophet had spoken and acted in various circumstances.
Where could this be better learned than at Medina, where he had lived so
long and where the majority of his companions continued to live? So at
Medina a school was gradually formed, where the chief part of the
traditions about Mahomet and his first successors took a form more or
less fixed. Soon men began to assist memory by making notes, and pupils
sought to take written jottings of what they had heard from their
teachers. Thus by the close of the 1st century many _dictata_ were
already in circulation. For example, Hasan of Basra (d. 728 A.D.) had a
great mass of such notes, and he was accused of sometimes passing off as
oral tradition things he had really drawn from books; for oral tradition
was still the one recognized authority, and it is related of more than
one old scholar, and even of Hasan of Basra himself, that he directed
his books to be burned at his death. The books were mere helps. Long
after this date, when all scholars drew mainly from books, the old forms
were still kept up. Tabari, for example, when he cites a book expresses
himself as if he had heard what he quotes from the master with whom he
read the passage or from whose copy he transcribed it. He even expresses
himself in this wise: "'Omar b. Shabba has _related_ to me in his book
on the history of Basra." No independent book of the 1st century from
the Flight (i.e. 622-719) has come down to us. It is told, however, that
Moawiya summoned an old man named 'Abid ibn Sharya from Yemen to
Damascus to tell him all he knew about ancient history and that he
induced him to write down his information