Critics' disagreement in narrator evaluations (Yahya b. Maîn and his teachers)

It is a historical fact that critics have disagreed in their judgments about transmitters (râvî). In the context of the teacher-student relationship, the disagreements between Yahya b. Ma'în and his teachers regarding the transmitters have been examined. Common transmitters were identified, and then their opinions were compared, revealing data such as consensus and disagreement. The number of common transmitters evaluated by Yahya b. Ma'în and his 11 teachers is 1,078. Of these, 665 represent consensus, 127 indicate disagreement, and the remaining 76 are views that either provide introductory information about the transmitter or evaluate the transmitters from only one aspect, without stating agreement or disagreement. The fact that the disagreement rate is low and the consensus rate is high suggests that the critical scholars applied the same methodology in their evaluations of criticism and validation (jarh-ta'dîl). Despite Yahya b. Ma'în and his teachers belonging to different levels (tabaqa), the low level of disagreement is noteworthy. It was expected that there would be more disagreement, as students are typically assumed to have more information about transmitters compared to their teachers. The study shows the transformation process of transmitter criticism in the context of the teacher-student relationship through statistical data. Some transmitters on which Yahya b. Ma'în and his teachers disagreed and the reasons for these disagreements have been examined, and the causes of disagreement have been mentioned.