of the eminent scholars. He was known by the kunyas Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Muḥammad, and was al-Juʿfī by affiliation—a client of that clan—originally from Kufa.

He studied the Qur’an with Ḥamzah al-Zayyāt and mastered its recitation. He learned the variant letters from Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ and from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh.

Among those from whom he heard ḥadith were al-Aʿmash, Jaʿfar ibn Burqān, Mujammaʿ ibn Yaḥyā al-Anṣārī, Fuḍayl ibn Marzūq, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir, Sufyān al-Thawrī, Zāʾidah, and many others. He also kept the company of al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ and others.

Those who narrated from him include Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah—despite the fact that he had been one of Ḥusayn’s own teachers—Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh, Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr al-Kawsaj, Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān al-Ruhāwī, Abū Isḥāq al-Jawzajānī, Abū Kurayb, Muḥammad ibn Rāfiʿ, Aḥmad ibn al-Furāt, Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Wakīʿī, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Hārūn ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥammāl, ʿAbbās al-Dūrī, Muḥammad ibn ʿĀṣim al-Thaqafī, and many others.

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “I have never seen anyone better than Ḥusayn al-Juʿfī”—by “better” the early scholars meant piety and devotion to Allah. Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn and others affirmed, “He is trustworthy.”

Qutaybah reported: Someone said to Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, “Ḥusayn al-Juʿfī has arrived,” so he leapt to his feet.