breast-feeding.

Hisham said, “My brother Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Nawfal related to us, from my father, who said:
‘The affairs of the Children of Israel remained upright until the sons of the captive nations grew up among them. Those youths then began giving their own opinions, so they went astray and led others astray.’

Ayyub ibn al-Mutawakkil said: Whenever Hammad ibn Zayd looked at ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi in his gathering, his face would brighten.

Sadaqah ibn al-Fadl al-Marwazi, the hadith scholar, said: I came to Yahya ibn Saʿid to ask him, and he told me, “Stay close to ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi.” He then supplied me with some reports from him; I later asked ʿAbd al-Rahman about them, and he narrated them to me (1).

Ahmad ibn Sinan al-Qattan said: I heard Mahdi ibn Hassan say, “ʿAbd al-Rahman would stay with Sufyan for ten or fifteen days, night and day. If he happened to spend an hour with us, Sufyan’s messenger would come right after him looking for him, whereupon he would leave us and return to Sufyan.” (2)

Ahmad ibn Sinan also said: I heard ʿAbd al-Rahman say, “Sufyan once issued a ruling on a certain question. He saw that I seemed to disapprove of his ruling and asked, ‘What do you say?’ I replied, ‘Such-and-such,’ contrary to his view, and he fell silent.” (3)

Ibn al-Madini said: ʿAbd al-Rahman narrated to us that Sufyan said to me, “If my books were here with me, I would have imparted knowledge to you.”

Ahmad ibn Sinan said: In ʿAbd al-Rahman’s session no one spoke, no pen was sharpened, no one smiled, and no one stood up—it was as though birds were perched on their heads,