from the Daylam. He was severe, ill-tempered, yet he never mispronounced a single letter, was well-versed in the laws of inheritance, and showed a measure of pro-ʿAlid sympathy. Only three men ever completed a full reading of the Qur’an with him: Ṭalḥah ibn Muṣarrif—who was older and superior to him—Abān ibn Taghlib, and Abū ʿUbaydah ibn Maʿn.

I say: al-ʿIjlī’s point is that they finished it under his prompting, whereas Hamzah and others completed it with him by way of presentation.

ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus said, “We never saw anyone the like of al-Aʿmash, and I have never seen wealthy people held in lower esteem by anyone than they were by him, despite his poverty and need.”

I add: He was dignified, content, and toward the end of his life he received a stipend of five dinars a month from the public treasury.

Wakīʿ’s father—al-Jarrāḥ ibn Malīḥ—was in charge of the treasury. When Wakīʿ came to al-Aʿmash to deliver his allowance, al-Aʿmash said, “Bring me an order from your father for my stipend and I will narrate five hadiths to you.”

ʿAlī ibn ʿAththam ibn ʿAlī relates from his father that people once said to al-Aʿmash, “Will you not die so that we can report from you?” He replied, “How many an Isfahani jar has had countless bowls smashed over its head!”(1)

It is reported that al-Aʿmash recited the Qur’an to Zayd ibn Wahb, Zir ibn Hubaysh, and Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, and that he presented it to Abū ʿĀliyah al-Riyāḥī, Mujāhid, ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdalah, and Abū Ḥuṣayn. He also had a non-canonical reading whose chain of transmission is not widely known.

Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh said, “When al-Aʿmash would present the Qur’an, people would hold their copies open before him, yet he would not err in a single letter.”

Al-Tabūdhakī reports from Abū ʿAwānah: “I once gave al-Aʿmash’s wife a head-scarf; thereafter, whenever I visited, she would take him by the hand and bring him out to me, …”