mother. After seven years of marriage, she asked him, “Cousin, how do things seem to you? Is there anything you don’t like?”
“Nothing,” he answered, “except that those sandals of yours squeak.”
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قال الخلال: وأحفظ أنّ خطاب بن بشر قال: قالت امرأة أحمد لأحمد بعد ما دخلت إليه بأيّام: هل تنكر شيء؟
قال: لا إلا أنّ هذه النَّعل التي تلبسينها ولم تكن على عهد رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وسلّم .
قال: فباعتها واشترت مقطوعًا فكانت تلبسه.
قال الخلال: وهي هذه المرأة، يعني أمّ عبد الله.
قال الخلّال: وسمعتُ أبا بكر المرُّوذي يقول: سمعتُ أبا عبد الله – وذكر أهله فترحّم عليها – وقال: مكثنا عشرين سنة ما اختلفنا في كلمة.
قال الخلال: وهي هذه المرأة يعني أمّ عبد الله.
Al-Khallāl also said: “I remember Khaṭṭāb ibn Bishr saying that one of Aḥmad’s wives said to him a few days after she came into the household: ‘Is there anything I’m doing wrong?’
“‘No,’ he answered, ‘except that those sandals you’re wearing didn’t exist at the time of the Prophet, God bless and keep him.’”
So she sold them and bought a maqṭūʿ,33 which she would wear.
Al-Khallāl added that the woman he was talking about is this one: that is, ʿAbd Allāh’s mother.
He also heard al-Marrūdhī say that he heard Aḥmad mention a wife and ask God to have mercy on her. Then he said, “We lived together for twenty years and never had an argument.”
That’s this woman: ʿAbd Allāh’s mother.
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قلت: قد ذكرنا عنه أنّه قال: أقامت معي أمّ صالح ثلاثين سنة، وفي هذه الرواية: مكثنا عشرين سنة، وكلتا الروايتين عن المرُّوذي، وإحدى الرِّوايتين غلط بلا شك لأنّ أحمد لم يتزوّج إلا بعد الأربعين ولم يتزوج بعد أم صالح حتى ماتت فلو أقام معها ثلاثين ومع الأُخرى عشرين تَمّ له تسعون سنة وكلّ ما عاش سَبعًا وسبعين ثمّ كان يكون قد تزوّج أم عبد الله بعد السبعين ومعلوم أنه لم يمت إلا وعبد الله يروي عنه ويسافر معه، وكان يقول: ابني عبد الله محظوظ من حفظ الحديث، وقد طلب الحديث وسمع من العلماء في حياة أبيه الكثير، والذي أراه أنّ الإشارة بقوله مكثنا عشرين سنة إلى أم صالح والله أعلم.
وهاتان زوجتان وما عرفنا أنّه تزوج ثالثة.
[The author:] I’ve already quoted Aḥmad as saying that Ṣāliḥ’s mother lived with him for thirty years, and this last report says that he and a wife lived together for twenty. Although both reports are attributed to al-Marrūdhī, one of them must be wrong. Aḥmad did not marry at all until he was forty and did not marry again until after Ṣāliḥ’s mother had died. If he spent thirty years with her and another twenty with the second wife, he would have to have lived for ninety years. Yet he only lived to be seventy-seven. Moreover, he would need to have married ʿAbd Allāh’s mother when he was over seventy, but we know that by the time he died, ʿAbd Allāh was already transmitting his reports and traveling with him. Aḥmad used to say that ʿAbd Allāh—who had already begun seeking Hadith and had heard many teachers while his father was still alive—had a good head for memorizing Hadith. Therefore, I think that the person Aḥmad lived with for twenty years was Ṣāliḥ’s mother—though God knows best.
These, in any case, are the two wives he is known to have had. We have not heard of a third.
الباب الثالث والستّون
في ذكر سَراريه
Chapter 63
His Concubines
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كان رضي الله عنه قد اشترى جارية اسمها حُسْن.
Aḥmad, God have mercy on him, bought a concubine named Ḥusn.
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أخبرنا محمّد بن أبي منصور قال: أخبرنا عبد القادر بن محمّد قال: أنبأنا البرمكي قال: أنبأنا عبد العزيز قال: أنبأنا عبد العزيز قال: أنبأنا أبو بكر الخلّال قال: حدثني محمّد بن العبّاس حدثنا محمّد بن عليّ حدثني أبو بكر١ بن يحيى قال:
قال لي أبو يوسف بن بُخْتان: لمّا أمرَنا أبو عبد الله أن نشتري له الجارية مضيت أنا وفُوران فتبعني أبو عبد الله فقال لي: يا أبا يوسف يكون لها لحم.
١ د: ابو عبد الله.
We cite Muḥammad ibn Abī Manṣūr, who cites ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad, who was informed by al-Barmakī, who was informed by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, who was informed by Abū Bakr al-Khallāl, who heard Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās report that he heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī report that he heard Abū Bakr ibn Yaḥyā report that Abū Yūsuf ibn Bukhtān said:
[Abū Yūsuf ibn Bukhtān:] When Aḥmad asked us to buy the girl for him, Fūrān and I went. As we were leaving, Aḥmad came after me and said, “Make sure she’s got some meat on her.”
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