Ṣāliḥ was always eager to spend money. Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī l-Faqīh told me in Miṣṣīṣah that Ṣāliḥ once had his blood let and afterward invited his friends to celebrate his recovery. He must have spent twenty dinars on scent and that sort of thing.
I think it was also al-Ḥasan who told me the following.
At one point Aḥmad knocked on the door. One of the guests, Ibn Abī Maryam, said to Ṣāliḥ, “Let down that curtain so we don’t get in trouble with your father! And don’t let him smell the scent!”
Aḥmad came in, sat down, and asked Ṣāliḥ how he was feeling. Then he said, “Here, take these two dirhams and spend them on yourself today.” With that, he got up and left.
“You so-and-so!” said Ibn Abī Maryam to Ṣāliḥ. “How could you think of taking those dirhams?”
٣،٦٥
أخبرنا عبد الرحمن بن محمّد القزاز قال: أخبرنا أحمد بن عليّ بن ثابت قال: حدثني محمّد بن الحُسين بن محمّد قال: ذكر أبو بكر الخلال قال: أخبرني محمّد بن العباس قال:
حدثني محمّد بن عليّ قال: لما صار صالح إلى أصفهان وكنت معه بدأ بالمسجد١ الجامع فدخله وصلى ركعتين واجتمع الناس والشيوخ وجلس وقُرئ عهده الذي كتب له الخليفة فجعل يبكي بُكاءً٢ شديدًا حتى غلبه فبكى الشيوخ الذين قربوا منه.
فلمّا فُرغ من قراءة العهد جعل المشايخ يدعون له يقولون: ما ببلدنا أحد إلّا ويحبّ أبا عبد الله ويميل إليك.
فقال لهم: تدرون ما أبكاني؟ ذكرتُ أبي أن يراني في مثل هذا٣ الحال، وكان عليه السَّواد، وكان أبي يبعث خلفي إذا جاءه رجل زاهد أو متقشّف لأنظر عليه، يحبّ أن أكون مثله أو يَراني مثله، ولكنّ الله يعلم ما دخلتُ في هذا الأمر إلا لدَيْن قد غلبني وكثرة عيال أحمد.٤
وكان صالح غير مرة إذا انصرف من مجلس الحُكم ينزع سواده ويقول لي: تراني أموت وأنا على هذا؟
توفّي صالح في رمضان سنة خمس وستين ومائتين بأصفهان.
١ ش، د: المسجد. ٢ ما بعدها يستأنف في الورقة رقم ١٢٢ من هـ على غير ترتيب. ٣ د: هذه. ٤ تركي: أحمد الله.
We cite ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Qazzāz, who cites Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Thābit, who heard Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad report that Abū Bakr al-Khallāl mentioned that Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī report:
[Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī:] I was with Ṣāliḥ when he arrived in Isfahan. The first place he went was the Friday mosque, where he prayed two cycles. Then, when the notables and elders had gathered, he sat down to hear the letter of appointment that the caliph had given him. As the letter was being read he began to weep uncontrollably. Soon the elders sitting near him were weeping as well. When the reading was finished, they prayed aloud for him. “Everyone in our town treasures the memory of Abū ʿAbd Allāh,” they told him, “and wishes you the best.”
“Do you know,” he asked them, “why I’m crying? I imagined my father seeing me like this”—dressed, that is, in the black robes of his office. “Whenever a shabby ascetic would come to visit him, my father would send for me so I could meet him. He wanted me to be like that—or look like that. As God is my witness, I had no choice but to take this position: I have a debt to pay and all my father’s children to feed.”45
More than once, as he left the judicial session and removed his black robe, Ṣāliḥ said to me, “Just think: I might die in these clothes!”
Ṣāliḥ died in Ramaḍān 265 [April–May 879] in Isfahan.
٤،٦٥
فأما زهير بن صالح فإنه حدث عن أبيه١ وروى عنه ابن أخيه محمّد بن أحمد بن صالح وأحمد بن سلمان٢ النجّاد. وقال الدارقطني: زهير ثقة.
قال أحمد بن كامل القاضي: توّفي زهير بن صالح في ربيع الأول سنة ثلاث وثلاث مائة.
١ د: حدث عن ابيه وروى عن ابيه. ٢ د: سليمان.
His son Zuhayr transmitted reports from him, and Zuhayr’s reports, in turn, were transmitted by his nephew Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṣālih and by Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān al-Najjād. Al-Dāraquṭnī describes Zuhayr as reliable. According to Judge Aḥmad ibn Kāmil, he died in Rabīʿ I 303 [September–October 915].
محمّد بن أحمد بن صالح بن أحمد بن حنبل
Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal
٥،٦٥
يُكنى أبا جعفر روى عن أبيه وعن عمّه زهير وإبراهيم بن خالد الهِسِنْجَانِي في جماعة وروى عنه الدَّارَقُطْني وتوفّي سنة ثلاثين وثلاث مائة.
Called Abū Jaʿfar, he transmitted reports he learned from his father, his uncle Zuhayr, and Ibrāhīm ibn Khālid al-Hisinjānī, among others. Transmitting in turn from him was al-Dāraquṭnī. He died in 330 [941–42].
ذكر عبد الله بن أحمد بن حنبل
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal
٦،٦٥
