“When we reached Mecca,” he told me later, “we began to walk around the Kaʿbah, the way you do as soon as you arrive. Then who does Yaḥyā recognize but ʿAbd al-Razzāq? When we finished the walk, all of us prayed two cycles39 behind the Maqām40 and sat down. Then Yaḥyā got up, went over to ʿAbd al-Razzāq, and greeted him.
“‘This is your brother Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal,’ he said, introducing me.
“‘God keep him, and strengthen his resolve!’ said ʿAbd al-Razzāq. ‘I’ve heard so many good things about him.’
“‘God willing,’ said Yaḥyā, ‘we’ll come see you tomorrow and copy down your reports.’”
After ʿAbd al-Razzāq left, my father turned to Yaḥyā and asked why he had said that.
“So we can hear his Hadith right here,” said Yaḥyā. “God’s just saved you a month of travel back and forth, not to mention the cost of the journey.”
“God would never approve,” said my father, “of my seeing him here when I’ve already resolved to see him somewhere else.”41
In the end, to hear ʿAbd al-Razzāq, my father traveled all the way to Sanaa.
[Aḥmad:] I missed hearing Hadith from Mālik ibn Anas, but God sent me Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah to take his place. I also missed Ḥammād ibn Zayd, but God sent me Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah. 4.25
[Aḥmad ibn Sinān:] A group of Baghdadi students, among them Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, came to see Yazīd ibn Hārūn. All of them borrowed money from me and paid it back—except for Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Instead of borrowing, he gave me his fur and I sold it for seven dirhams.42 4.26
[Aḥmad:] In al-Raqqah the best transmitter I found was Fayyāḍ ibn Muḥammad ibn Sinān, a client of Quraysh.43 His house was built against the Friday mosque. He died in al-Raqqah sometime after 200 [815–16]. 4.27
[Ṣāliḥ:] A man once noticed my father carrying an inkpot and said to him, “What do you still need that for? You’re the imam of the Muslims!” 4.28
“I’ll need it until they bury me,” he answered.
[Aḥmad:] “I’ll stop seeking knowledge when I’m dead and buried.” 4.29
[Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl:] My father was a goldsmith in Baghdad. One day I was working with him when Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal came running by with his sandals in his hand. My father took hold of his clothing—like this—and said, “Aḥmad! Aren’t you ashamed still to be racing around like a schoolboy?” 4.30
“I’ll keep at it until I’m dead,” he replied.
[ʿAbd Allāh:] Once when I went to Mecca, I stayed in a house where an elderly man, a Meccan called Abū Bakr ibn Samāʿah, told me, “Your father stayed with us here when I was a boy. My mother told me: ‘Stick close to that man and look after him because he’s a righteous man,’ so I used to look after him. 4.31
“One day, while he was out studying Hadith, his bedclothes and belongings were stolen. When he came home, my mother said to him, ‘Some thieves broke in and took your things.’
“‘What about my slates?’ he asked. When she told him they were safe in the alcove, he asked no more questions.”
[ʿAbd Allāh:] My father walked all the way to Tarsus on foot, and to Yemen as well. 4.32
[ʿAbd Allāh:] My father said, “ʿAbd al-Razzāq never taught us anything from memory except the first time we sat with him. We arrived at night and found him sitting somewhere, and he dictated seventy Hadith reports for us. Then he turned to the group and said, ‘The only reason I’ve taught you Hadith tonight is because of who our guest is.’” 4.33
By this he meant my father.
[Al-Dawraqī:] I saw Ibn Ḥanbal right after he came back from seeing ʿAbd al-Razzāq in Yemen. He looked pale and weary. I told him that he had pushed himself too hard by going to see ʿAbd al-Razzāq. 4.34
“It was nothing,” he said, “compared to what I gained. He dictated for us all the Hadith reports that al-Zuhrī got from Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh, going back to his father, and the ones al-Zuhrī got from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, going back to Abū Hurayrah.”
[Aḥmad:] I tried to learn the Qurʾan by heart, but then I got too busy with Hadith. I was so afraid I’d never learn that I asked God to help me. It didn’t occur to me to ask Him to make it easy. When I finally did learn it, I was chained up in prison. So if you ask God for anything make sure to say: “Let me have it without misery or suffering.” 4.35
THE MAJOR MEN OF LEARNING WHOM HE MET AND ON WHOSE AUTHORITY HE RECITED HADITH
I have listed them alphabetically by first name. 5.1
NAMES BEGINNING WITH ALIF
Men named Aḥmad Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Khālid. Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Kathīr al-Dawraqī, called Abū ʿAbd Allāh. Aḥmad ibn Jamīl, called Abū Yūsuf. He was from Marv but settled in Baghdad. He sold wheat in Qaṭīʿat al-Rabīʿ. Aḥmad ibn Janāb ibn al-Mughīrah, called Abū l-Walīd al-Ḥadīthī and al-Miṣṣīṣī. Aḥmad ibn Janāḥ, called Abū Ṣāliḥ. Aḥmad ibn Ḥātim ibn Yazīd the Tall, called Abū Jaʿfar al-Khayyāṭ. Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥajjāj, called Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Dhuhlī, from Marv. Aḥmad ibn Dāwūd, called Abū Saʿīd al-Ḥaddād al-Wāsiṭī. Aḥmad ibn Abī Shuʿayb (whose name was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim), Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī, client of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Wāqid, called Abū Yaḥyā l-Jazarī l-Ḥarrānī, and often referred to using his grandfather’s name, that is, as Aḥmad ibn Wāqid. Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ, Abū Jaʿfar al-Miṣrī. Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb al-Warrāq, called Abū Jaʿfar. 5.2
[The list continues down through names beginning with yāʾ, the last letter of the Arabic alphabet.]
WOMEN FROM WHOM AḤMAD TRANSMITTED HADITH
Umm ʿAmr bint Ḥassān ibn Yazīd al-Thaqafī. 5.84
NOTE
Aḥmad encountered a number of righteous ascetics, some of whom we have listed among his sources of Hadith. Others, of whom some were too busy with reverential practices to transmit Hadith, he met but did not hear any reports from. In the course of this book, we will, God willing, have occasion to mention many of the ascetics he encountered. 5.87
[Aḥmad:] To my mind, nothing comes close to being poor. Do you know what it means to suffer poverty without complaint? I’ve seen so many upright men: men like ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs, as old as he was, wearing a tunic of felt.44 I’ve seen Abū Dāwūd al-Ḥafarī wearing a ripped tunic with the cotton coming out of it, praying from sunset to nighttime while swaying on his feet from hunger. I’ve seen Ayyūb ibn al-Najjār in Mecca after he gave up all his property, walking around the city carrying a rope and pail to draw water from the wells. He gave up everything he owned; he was a true worshipper. He had lived with the things of this world, but left them all in the hands of Yaḥyā l-Qaṭṭān. I’ve seen Ibn Bajālah the Worshipper; I used to hear the sound of his shoes as he circled the Kaʿbah at night. In the mosque there was also someone called al-ʿArfī45 who would stay up from nightfall to dawn, weeping the whole time. When I went to see what he looked like, he turned out to be a pale young man. I’ve seen Ḥusayn