his house, but Abū ʿUbayd would not do that; instead, he himself used to go to him.

When ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī and ʿAbbās al-ʿAnbarī arrived, they wished to hear Gharib al-Hadith, so every day Abū ʿUbayd would carry his book, come to them at their lodgings, and read it to them (1).

Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said, “I heard my father relate: My father went out to visit Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal while he was ill, and I was with him. He entered, and with Aḥmad were Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn and a group of others. Then Abū ʿUbayd entered, and Yaḥyā said to him, ‘Read to us your book that you compiled for al-Maʾmūn—Gharib al-Hadith.’

‘Bring it here,’ he replied.

They brought the book, and Abū ʿUbayd took it and began by reading the chains of transmission, leaving aside the explanation of the difficult terms. My father said, ‘Leave off the isnad; we know them better than you.’

Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said to my father, ‘Let him read it in full, for your son is with you and we need to hear it exactly as it is.’

Abū ʿUbayd said, ‘I have read it only to al-Maʾmūn. If you would like to read it, then read it yourselves.’

Ibn al-Madīnī answered, ‘If you read it aloud to us, fine; otherwise we have no need of it.’

Abū ʿUbayd did not recognize ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī and asked Yaḥyā, ‘Who is this?’

‘This is ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī,’ he replied.

Thereupon Abū ʿUbayd embraced him and read the book to us. Whoever was present at that session is entitled to say, ‘He narrated to us,’ and whoever was not may not say so (2).

This report was transmitted by Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī al-Hujaymī from Jaʿfar.

Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī said: Abū ʿUbayd—may Allah show him mercy—used to divide the night into three parts: he would spend one third in prayer, one third in sleep, and one third in composing books (3).