for you. I’m reciting only for the sake of these three.’” 10.10
By “these three” he meant Aḥmad, Isḥāq, and Ibn Abān.
[ʿAbd al-Razzāq:] I have never taught anyone like Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. 10.11
[ʿAbd al-Razzāq:] I never taught anyone the like of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. 10.12
[ʿAbd al-Razzāq:] Four of the great scholars of Hadith came to us from Iraq. There was al-Shādhakūnī, who had the most tenacious memory for Hadith. There was Ibn al-Madīnī, who had mastered the differences between reports. There was Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, who had the most thorough knowledge of the transmitters. And then there was Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who was the best at putting all three kinds of learning together. 10.13
Abū Yaʿqūb added: “After the Emissary, no one had more people travel to learn from him than did ʿAbd al-Razzāq.”
[ʿAbd al-Razzāq:] I’ve taught Hadith to three men so worthy that I don’t care if I never teach anyone else. There was Ibn al-Shādhakūnī, who had such a retentive memory; Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, who knew the transmitters so well; and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who renounced so much. 10.14
[ʿAbd al-Razzāq:] If that man—meaning Aḥmad—survives, it won’t matter that the rest of us are gone. 10.15
[ʿAbd al-Razzāq:] I never saw anyone like Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. 10.16
[Ibn Zanjawayh:] I told ʿAbd al-Razzāq that I was Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s neighbor. 10.17
“If that’s so,” he said, “I’ll come visit you.”
[Aḥmad:] ʿAbd al-Razzāq taught us some Hadith reports on the Mahdī67 and when he was done, looked over at me and said, “If not for this fellow here”—or “if not for him” (meaning me)—“I would never have taught you those reports.” 10.18
WAKĪʿ IBN AL-JARRĀḤ
[Wakīʿ:] Of all those who ever came to Kufa, that young man—meaning Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—was the best. 10.19
[Ibn Shammās:] I asked Wakīʿ to teach us the Hadith he had learned from Khārijah ibn Muṣʿab. 10.20
“I won’t,” he said. “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal told me not to.”
ḤAFṢ IBN GHIYĀTH AL-NAKHAʿĪ
[Ibn Ghiyāth:] Of all those who ever came to Kufa, that young man—meaning Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—was the best. 10.21
ABŪ L-WALĪD HISHĀM IBN ʿABD AL-MALIK AL-ṬAYĀLISĪ
[Al-Bukhārī:] I was in Basra when the news came that Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal had been flogged. Abū l-Walīd exclaimed, “If that man had lived in the days of the Children of Israel, they would have made him a legend.” 10.22
[Ibn Makhlad:] I was at Abū l-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī’s when a letter came from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. “There’s no one in the two towns”—meaning Basra and Kufa—“dearer to me than Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal,” I heard him say, “or anyone I admire more.” 10.23
[Ḥamdān ibn ʿAlī:] Abū l-ʿAwāmm al-Bazzāz (the draper) told me, “Once we were at Abū l-Walīd’s when we heard them saying, ‘Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s here!’ 10.24
“Abū l-Walīd, who had been sitting at ease, sprang up and then said nothing at all until Aḥmad had sat down. Aḥmad asked him to recite some Hadith, and he did.”
I think [al-Bazzāz] added that Abū l-Walīd turned to face Aḥmad.
“I remember,” continued al-Bazzāz, “saying”—to himself, that is—“that all of us are senior men of learning, but the only one that Abū l-Walīd treats with deference is Aḥmad!”
ḤUSAYN AL-JUʿFĪ
[Ibn Samāʿah:] We were at Ibn Abī ʿUmar al-ʿAdanī’s in Mecca. All of us except for him were talking about Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. After we had gone on for a while he broke his silence and said, “Those who could give Aḥmad his due are no longer with us. When he went to study Hadith with Ḥusayn al-Juʿfī, he brought a letter”—that is, a letter of recommendation. “But al-Juʿfī said, ‘Aḥmad, there’s no need to put a patron between us. You can appeal to me using whatever name you want, but you’re a better man than anyone you name.’” 10.25
ʿABD AL-RAḤMĀN IBN MAHDĪ
[Ibn Abī Ḥātim:] I heard Aḥmad ibn Sinān al-Qaṭṭān (the cotton merchant) report that he saw Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal approaching ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī—or perhaps it was when Aḥmad had gotten up and left the circle—and heard Ibn Mahdī say, “No one knows the Hadith transmitted by Sufyān al-Thawrī better than that man there.” 10.26
[Ibn Mahdī:] Every time I look at Ibn Ḥanbal I can’t help thinking of Sufyān al-Thawrī. 10.27
[Ibn Shammās:] We were at ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī’s when Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal had just left—or was approaching—and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said, “Anyone who wants to know what al-Thawrī carried in his head should ask that man there.” 10.28
[Ibn Mahdī:] “That boy”—meaning Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—“was almost an exemplar while still in his mother’s womb.” 10.29
YAḤYĀ IBN SAʿĪD AL-QAṬṬĀN
[Al-Qaṭṭān:] “I never had another student as good as Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.” 10.30
[Al-Qaṭṭān:] My two best students were Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn. 10.31
[Al-Qaṭṭān:] “I never had another student as good as Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn.” 10.32
[Al-Karābīsī:] When Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal went to Basra, Ibn al-Shādhakūnī came to resent him, and made some remark about him to Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, who said, “Let me have a look at him.” 10.33
After he had seen him, al-Qaṭṭān said to Ibn al-Shādhakūnī, “Shame on you, Sulaymān! Have you no fear of God? That’s one of our sages you’re talking about.”
[Al-Qaṭṭān:] Of the ones who came from Baghdad, no one was dearer to me than Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. 10.34
[Ibn al-Madīnī:] Yaḥyā, Aḥmad, and Khalaf came to study with Ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān. He asked me who Yaḥyā was. 10.35
“That’s Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn,” I told him.
“What about that one?”
“That’s Khalaf.”
“What
