—Sufyān had ʿAmr, ʿAbd al-Malik had al-Ḥajjāj, and as for me, I have myself (1).
This saying has also been reported as coming from al-Manṣūr.
It is narrated of al-Maʾmūn that during one Ramadan he completed thirty-three full recitations of the Qur’an (2).
Al-Ḥusayn ibn Fahm said: Yahyā ibn Aktham related to us: “Al-Maʾmūn said to me, ‘I wish to transmit hadith.’ I replied, ‘Who is more entitled to that than you?’ He said, ‘Set up a pulpit for me,’ and then he ascended it.
“The first narration he delivered to us was from Hushaym, from Abū al-Jahm, from al-Zuhrī, from Abū Salama, from Abū Hurayra, traced back to the Prophet: ‘Imruʾ al-Qays, the standard-bearer of the poets, is in the Fire’ (3).
“He then went on to report roughly thirty hadiths of the same kind and came down from the pulpit.
“He asked, ‘Abū Yahyā, how did you find our gathering?’ I replied, ‘The most august of assemblies—both the elite and the common people have gained understanding.’ He said, ‘I found in it no sweetness; a true scholarly session is that of men in worn garments carrying inkwells’ (4).
(1) Tarikh Baghdad, 10/190; Fawat al-wafayat, 2/236; Tarikh al-khulafa, p. 306.
(2) Tarikh Baghdad, 10/190; Fawat al-wafayat, 2/236.
(3) The isnad is weak because of Abu al-Jahm. Abu Zurʿah al-Razi judged him “feeble”. Ibn ʿAdi describes him as an unknown shaykh whose proper name is not recorded; his report is objectionable and no other transmission of his is known. Ibn Hibban states that he attributes to al-Zuhri material that is not from him and that his solitary narrations cannot be relied upon. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr likewise declares his hadith unsound. See: Ibn Hibban, al-Majruḥin, 3/150; al-Dhahabi, al-Mizan, 4/512; Ibn Hajar, Lisan al-mizan, 7/28-29.
Ahmad includes the report in his Musnad, 2/229, through the route of Hushaym with this same chain. Ibn Kathir cites it in al-Bidayah, 2/118, noting that many others—among them Bishr b. al-Hakam, al-Hasan b. ʿArafah, the caliph ʿAbd Allah al-Maʾmun, and Yahya b. ʿAdi—transmitted it from Hushaym. Al-Haythami lists it in Majmaʿ al-zawaʾid, 8/119, attributing it to Ahmad and al-Bazzar, and comments: “Its chain contains Abu al-Jahm, the shaykh of Hushaym b. Bashir, whom I do not know, while the remaining transmitters are those of the Sahih.”
(4) Fawat al-wafayat, 2/236. – Al-khulqan is the plural of khalaq; one says thawb khalaq (“a worn garment”) or milhafa khaliqa (“a worn cloak”); the plural is khulqan.