Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Mardawayh said, “In his day Abū Nuʿaym was the scholar to whom people undertook the journey; in no land could anyone be found with a higher isnād or a better memory than his. The ḥuffāẓ of the whole world assembled around him. Each day one of them would have his turn, reading to him whatever he wished until almost noon. When he rose to go home, a further fascicle might be read to him on the way, and he never grew weary. His only midday meal was writing and audition.”(1)

Ḥamzah ibn al-ʿAbbās al-ʿAlawī said, “The hadith scholars used to say: Abū Nuʿaym remained unrivalled for fourteen years; east or west no one possessed a higher chain of transmission or a sharper memory than he.

“They would also say: When he composed al-Ḥilya, the book was carried to Nīshāpūr during his lifetime, and they bought it for four hundred dinars.”(2)

I say: Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, despite his seniority, narrated through an intermediary from Abū Nuʿaym. In his Tabaqāt al-Ṣūfiyyah he writes:

“ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Aḥmad al-Hāshimī narrated to us; Abū Nuʿaym narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥubaysh, the Qurʾān-reciter of Baghdad, narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Sahl al-Adamī narrated to us …” and he mentioned a ḥadith.(3)

Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī said: I heard Abū al-ʿAlāʾ Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Fursānī relate:

“I attended, while still a youngster and in the company of my father, the dictation session of Abū Bakr ibn Abī ʿAlī al-Dhakwānī, the muʿaddil. When he finished, someone called out, ‘Whoever wishes to attend the gathering of Abū Nuʿaym, let him stand up.’

“At that time Abū Nuʿaym was being shunned because of his theological stance, and there was fierce partisanship between the Ashʿarīs and the Ḥanbalīs.”