In the two Sahihs more than two hundred old traditions...

In the two Sahihs more than two hundred old traditions, and about this al-Diya’ al-Muqaddasi has compiled a book calling it Ghara’ib al-Sahihayn, citing in it more than two hundred strange and odd traditions, from among those recorded in the Sahihayn. 598 Who Considered al-Bukhari and Muslim More Authentic?

Ibn Amir al-Hajj, in Sharh al-Tahrir, stated what could mean: 599 The point to which good attention should be given is that their authenticity more than others is only in respect of those succeeding them not those who preceded them, as this fact, though being apparent may be unknown by some, or some may swindle and cheat, and Allah the Glorified knows better.

Someone explained this statement thus: That who stated these words intends to say that the two Shaykhs and authors of Sunan constitute a contemporary group of huffaz who emerged after the writing down of the Islamic fiqh, taking care of certain segment of hadith. While the mujtahid imams who preceded them were more plentiful in material and prolific in traditions, having under their hands all kinds of hadith: the marfu’, mawquf and mursal, and fatawa of the Sahabah and Tabi’un.

And as is known, the mujtahid’s view can never be restricted to a part of hadith. This can be obviously seen in the comprehensive (jami’) books and compilations (musannafat) which refer to these kinds in every bab (chapter) that were indispensable by every mujtahid and authors of comprehensive (jami’) books and musannafat, before the era of the authors of al-Sihah al-Sittah (six sahih books), to whom they used to refer, and who could easily look into asanid of these traditions because of their high rank, especially the inference of any mujtahid with a corrected hadith, and reference to al-Sihah al-Sittah and using them in dispute can be achieved only through considering those who succeeded them.

That point drawing our attention here is that some of the latter huffaz show leniency in ascribing the traditions they report to the six origin books and other than them, with a great difference in wording and meaning.

In his Sharh al-Alfiyyah, al-Iraqi writes: Al-Bayhaqi in his al-Sunan and al-Ma’rifah, and al-Baghawi in Sharh al-Sunnah and others, used to narrate the traditions with their own words and asanid, ascribing them then to al-Bukhari and Muslim with differences in wording and meaning, as what they were after was relating the hadith in itself not ascribing its words.