Abu Saʿd (1) al-Samʿānī said, “I entered Burūjird (2) and sat in its congregational mosque copying a booklet, with an elderly shaykh seated beside me.
He asked, ‘What are you writing?’
I grew annoyed at his question and replied, ‘Hadith.’
He said, ‘Hadith of whom?’
I answered, ‘From the transmissions of the scholars of Marw.’
He said, ‘Which hadith scholars from Marw do you know?’
I said, ‘ʿAbdān, Ṣadaqah ibn al-Faḍl, and Ibn Munīr.’
He then asked, ‘And what is ʿAbdān’s full name?’
I replied, ‘ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān.’
I looked at him with due courtesy, whereupon he said, ‘And why was he nicknamed ʿAbdān?’
I said, ‘Perhaps the shaykh will enlighten us.’
He answered, ‘Because the word ʿabd appears both in his given name and in his kunya, so he was styled with the dual form that combines the two.’
I asked, ‘From whom does the shaykh transmit this report?’
He said, ‘From our teacher Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī (3).’
I remarked, ‘ʿAbdān died in Shaʿbān of the year 221 AH, at the age of seventy-six.’
72 – al-Maʾmūn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd*
The caliph, Abū al-ʿAbbās, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd ibn Muḥammad al-Mahdī
(1) The base manuscript reads “Abu Sa id,” which is a scribal corruption.
(2) This is a town located between Hamadhan and Karaj; it once served as the residence of the vizier of the Abu Dulaf family. See Yaqut, Mujam al-buldan, 1/404.
(3) The report is preserved in al-Tahbir fi al-mu jam al-kabir, 2/248, by al-Sam ani, and in Mujam al-buldan, 1/404–405, which adds: “After that I wrote down hadiths from him, selecting them from various fascicles.” The shaykh in question is the hadith master Abu l-Fadl Muhammad b. Hibat Allah b. al-Ala al-Burujirdi, whose biography will appear in volume 20.
(*) Among the works that record the event: Ibn Qutayba, al-Ma arif, 387; al-Dinawari, al-Akhbar al-tiwal, 400; al-Ya qubi, Tarikh, 3/172; al-Tabari, 8/478; al-Mas udi, Muruj al-dhahab, 2/247–269; al-Muqaddasi, al-Bada wa l-tarikh, 6/112; Ibn al-Nadim, al-Fihrist, 129; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, 10/183; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, 6/282; Ibn Dihya, al-Nibras, 46–63; al-Dhahabi, al-Ibar (index to vol. 1); Ibn al-Fuwati, Uyûn al-tawarikh, 8, fol. 12; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa l-nihaya, 10/244; Ibn al-Wardi, al-Dhahab al-masbuk, 186; Ibn Taghribirdi, al-Nujum al-zahira, 2/225; al-Suyuti, Tarikh al-khulafa, 306–333; Diyarbakri, Tarikh al-khamis, 2/334; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-dhahab, 2/39; Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Fawat al-wafayat, 2/235–239.