the scholar who was then in Khurasan and who later died at the frontier should narrate something here. At that time Yazid ibn Harun was still alive, so he wrote to him, “Yazid is alive; and if he says ‘no,’ then it is ‘no’ until the Day of Resurrection.” Accordingly, he disclosed nothing until Yazid passed away.

Al-Maymuni said: Abū ʿUbayd told me, “Abū al-Hasan, I have sat with Abū Yusuf and Muhammad—and, I think, he also mentioned Yahya ibn Saʿid—yet I never felt the awe toward anyone that I felt toward Ahmad ibn Hanbal.”

Of his participation in jihad:
ʿAbdullāh ibn Maḥmūd ibn al-Faraj stated: I heard ʿAbdullāh ibn Ahmad say, “My father went out to Tarsus, remained on guard there, and took part in a campaign. Later my father said, ‘I saw knowledge dying out there.’ ”

And it is related from Ahmad that he once said to a man, “Remain at the frontier, remain in Qazwin”—for in those days Qazwin was a frontier post.

Chapter
Ibn ʿAdī reported: ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ibn Ahmad al-Jurjani told us; I heard ʿAmmar ibn Rajaʾ say: I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal declare, “Seeking a lofty isnad (chain of transmission) is part of the sunnah.” (1)