He also said: “He passed away in 247 AH.”
Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām remarked, “None of the youths of Khurāsān who arrived among us were the like of Ḥumayd ibn Zanjūyah and Aḥmad ibn Shabbūyah.” (1)
I say: The last of his companions to die was the judge Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Maḥāmilī.
Al-Ḥākim mentioned him, saying: “Abū Aḥmad transmitted a vast amount of hadith; his journeys to the Ḥijāz, Egypt, Syria, and the Two Iraqs date back to the earliest days…,” until he said:
“In Iraq, the two leading imams of hadith—Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—narrated from him…,” until he said:
I read, in the handwriting of Abū ʿAmr al-Mustamlī: “Ḥumayd ibn Zanjūyah al-Nasāʾī related to us in Nīshāpūr in 227 AH.”
Abū al-Qāsim, in Shuyūkh al-Nabal, wrote: “He died in 251 AH, though it is also said: 248 AH.” (3)
I add: In the final phase of his life he traveled about disseminating his knowledge until he reached Egypt. After leaving it, death overtook him in 251 AH. This is the sound date of his passing.
I heard the ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Ḥajjāj say to our teacher Abū al-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Hibat Allāh in 696 AH: “Abū al-Ghanāʾim al-Musallam (4) Aḥmad has informed you …”