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CHAPTER 4

THE BEGINNING OF HIS SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE AND THE JOURNEY HE UNDERTOOK FOR THAT PURPOSE²⁵

Aḥmad began his studies with the learned men of Baghdad. He then traveled to Kufa, Basra, Mecca, Medina, Yemen, Syria, and northern Iraq, writing down what he acquired from the men of learning in each region he visited. 4.1

[Aḥmad:] The first teacher whose Hadith I wrote down was Abū Yūsuf.²⁶ 4.2

[Aḥmad:] I started learning Hadith when I was sixteen. When Hushaym died, I was twenty. I first heard Hadith from him in 179 [795–96]. 4.3

[Aḥmad:] I started in ’79 [795–96], when I was sixteen.²⁷ That was my first year studying Hadith. I remember someone coming up to us and saying that Ḥammād ibn Zayd was dead. That was also the year we lost Mālik ibn Anas. In 198 [813–14], when we were studying with ʿAbd al-Razzāq in Yemen, we heard that Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, and Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd were gone, too.²⁸ 4.4

[Aḥmad:] I heard Hadith from Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb in Basra in ’94 [809–10], and from Abū l-Nuʿmān ʿĀrim in the same year, and from ʿUmar al-Ḥawḍī too.

[Aḥmad:] I started studying Hadith in ’79. 4.5

[Aḥmad:] I started studying Hadith in ’79. I remember going to Ibn al-Mubārak’s circle but missing him. He’d come to us first in ’79. 4.6

[Aḥmad:] I studied with ʿAlī ibn Hāshim ibn al-Barīd in ’79, my first year studying Hadith. Then I went back to him for another session but he had died in the meantime. Mālik ibn Anas died that year too. 4.7

[ʿAbd Allāh:] My father said, “Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh, meaning al-Ṭaḥḥān (the miller), and Abū l-Aḥwaṣ, Mālik ibn Anas, and Ḥammād ibn Zayd all died in ’79. Mālik died shortly before Ḥammād. That was the year I started studying Hadith. I remember we were gathered at the door of Hushaym’s house and he was dictating either Funerals or Rites”²⁹—I can’t recall which he said—“when a man coming from Basra said that Ḥammād ibn Zayd was dead.” 4.8

[Ṣāliḥ:] I heard my father say: “I began learning when I was sixteen. The first teacher I heard was Hushaym, in ’79. In that same year, Ibn al-Mubārak came to Baghdad for the last time. I went to his circle but they told me that he had left for Tarsus.³⁰ He died in ’81. I spent ’79 writing down the Hadith reports that Hushaym was teaching us. We continued with him in ’80, ’81, and ’83, when he died, after dictating the Book on Pilgrimage, which had about a thousand Hadith reports, some interpretation of the Qurʾan, the Book on Judgeship, and some smaller things.”³¹ 4.9

I said I supposed that he had written three thousand reports in all.

“More,” he said. He continued: “I remember we were gathered at Hu-shaym’s door and he was dictating Funerals when we heard that Ḥammād ibn Zayd had died.

“I also heard Hadith from ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khālid Abī l-Ḥasan al-ʿAbsī in ’82, before Hushaym died.

“I also heard Hadith from ʿAlī ibn Mujāhid al-Kābulī, who was from Rey and was called Abū Mujāhid. That was the year I made my first trip. ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus reached Kufa a few days after I left. That was in ’82.

“My first trip to Basra was in ’86. In ’87 I went to find Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah. We were too late to see Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ before he died. That was the year I went on pilgrimage for the first time. I wrote down Hadith from Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd and prayed behind him several times. At the end of the prayer, he would say the taslīm only once.³² If I had had fifty dirhams, I would have gone out to Rey to see Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd. Some of the other students went but I couldn’t.”

He added: “When I went to Kufa, I stayed in a room where I slept with my head resting on a brick. I came down with fever and went back to my mother, God show her mercy!”

[Aḥmad:] If I had had fifty dirhams I would have gone out to Rey to see Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd. Some of my fellow students went but I couldn’t because I had nothing to spend. 4.10

[Aḥmad:] When I went to Kufa, I stayed in a room where I slept with my head resting on a brick. I came down with fever and went back to my mother. I had never asked her permission to leave. 4.11

[Al-ʿAbbādānī:] I heard Ibn Ḥanbal say, “I reached ʿAbbādān in ’86 sometime during the last ten days of Rajab. I had gone that year to see al-Muʿtamir. There was a man there involved in Disputation.”³³ 4.12

“You mean Haddāb?”³⁴

“Right! Abū l-Rabīʿ was there too, and I wrote down some of his reports.”

[Aḥmad:] Some days I tried to leave for Hadith sessions as early as I could but my mother would grab me by the clothes and pull me back, saying, “Wait until the call to prayer!” or “Wait until people wake up!” 4.13

I used to go early to hear Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh and others.

[Aḥmad:] I was studying with Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān (the cotton merchant) and then left for Wāsiṭ. Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd came asking for me and they told him where I’d gone. 4.14

“What’s he doing in Wāsiṭ?” he asked.

“Studying with Yazīd ibn Hārūn.”

“What for?” asked Yaḥyā.

[Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān:] By that Yaḥyā meant that Aḥmad knew more than the man he’d gone to study with.

[Aḥmad:] I’ve visited Basra five times. The first was at the beginning of Rajab 186. That’s when I heard Hadith from al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān. The second time was in ’90. The third was in ’94, after Ghundar died.³⁵ I studied with Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd for six months. In 200 I went again.³⁶ 4.15

[Ibrāhīm ibn Hāshim:] When Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd came to Baghdad he went to stay with the family of Musayyab. After Jarīr had crossed over to the East Side, the Tigris rose. I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal if he wanted to cross with me. 4.16

“My mother won’t let me,” he said. So I crossed alone and joined Jarīr’s circle.

[The author:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal did hear Hadith from Jarīr, though he did not have the chance to hear very much.

The flooding mentioned here took place in 186, during the reign of al-Rashīd. The Tigris rose visibly in its banks and reached a point higher than anyone had ever seen before. Al-Rashīd had his family, his womenfolk, and his property put aboard ships.

Abū ʿAlī l-Baradānī reported: “The governor of Baghdad at the time was al-Sindī ibn Shāhak, called ‘son of Shāhak’ after his mother. To keep people safe, he forbade them to cross the river.”

[Aḥmad:] I wrote down Hadith dictated for us by Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb while Ibn ʿUyaynah was still alive. 4.17

[ʿAbd Allāh:] My father walked all the way to Tarsus on foot.³⁷ 4.18

[Ḥanbal:] I heard Aḥmad say, “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī arrived in ’80 [796–97], while Abū Bakr”—meaning Ibn ʿAyyāsh—“was here. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was forty-five and had dyed his beard with henna. I used to see him in the Friday mosque. Then he came to Baghdad. We joined him there, and he dictated six or seven hundred of his reports for us. It was in ’80 that he used to attend Abū Bakr’s circle.” 4.19

[Ibn Manīʿ:] I heard my grandfather talk about seeing Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal coming back from Kufa. 4.20

“He was carrying a satchel with some documents in it. I took his hand and said, ‘Today it’s Kufa; tomorrow it’ll be Basra again! How much longer can you keep this up? You’ve already copied thirty thousand Hadith; isn’t that enough?’

“He said nothing. I asked, ‘What if you reach sixty thousand?’

“He was still silent.

“‘A hundred thousand?’

“‘At that point,’ he replied, ‘a man might claim to know something.’”

We checked and found that Aḥmad had written down 300,000 reports transmitted by Bahz ibn Asad and ʿAffān alone.

[Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yāsīn:] I think Ibn Manīʿ may have added “and Rawḥ ibn ʿUbādah.”

[Aḥmad:] I went to Yemen to find Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAqīl, who was bad-tempered and refused to see anyone. By waiting at his door for a day or two, I managed to see him and he recited two Hadith reports for me. He also knew the reports that Wahb had gotten from Jābir, but I never got to hear them because of his bad temper. Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm knew those reports too, but he refused to recite them because Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAqīl was still alive. So I never heard them from anyone. 4.21

[Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq:] My father was traveling with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in search of Hadith when their ship was wrecked and they washed up on an island. There they found the following written on a stone: “Soon enough, all men will find themselves in riches or in want. After they are gathered before God Almighty, He will send some to the Garden and some to the Fire.”³⁸ 4.22

[Khushnām:] I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal whether Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā had been a reliable source of sunnah. 4.23

“I certainly thought so,” replied Ibn Ḥanbal. “If I’d been able to afford it, I’d have gone to see him.”

[Ṣāliḥ:] After resolving to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, my father set out in the company of Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn. After the pilgrimage, said my father, he would go to Sanaa to hear Hadith from ʿAbd al-Razzāq. 4.24

“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