Ḥassān b. Hilāl b. Bakkār b. Rabīʿa b. ʿAbd Allah al-Tanūkhī—originally from Ḥimṣ, later of the Maghrib, resident of Qayrawān; a Mālikī, the judge of Qayrawān and the author of the Mudawwana (1). He was popularly known as “Sahnūn” (2). He travelled eastward and performed the pilgrimage.
He heard ḥadith from Sufyān b. ʿUyaynah, al-Walīd b. Muslim, ʿAbd Allah b. Wahb, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Qāsim, Wakīʿ b. al-Jarrāḥ, Ashhab, and a number of others.
He did not expend himself in ḥadith to the same degree that he did in the derivative legal rulings.
He remained in close company with Ibn Wahb, Ibn al-Qāsim, and Ashhab until he became their peer.
He came to be foremost among the people of the Maghrib in refining the Mālikī school, and the leadership of scholarship there devolved to him. In that region, his view was the one relied upon. Many scholars gained their juristic training at his hands, although he had first studied in Ifrīqiyah under Ibn Ghānim and others.
His journey eastward took place in 188 AH. He was described as intelligent, perfectly devout, and scrupulously pious; famed for generosity and largesse; greatly venerated and without equal.
Among those who learned from him were: his son Muḥammad, jurist of Qayrawān; Aṣbagh b. Khalīl of Cordoba; Baqī b. Makhlad; Saʿīd b. Namir al-Ghāfiqī of Elvira, the jurist; ʿAbd Allah b. Ghāfiq al-Tūnusī; Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allah b. ʿAbdūs of the Maghrib; Wahb b. Nāfiʿ, jurist of Cordoba; Yaḥyā b. al-Qāsim b. Hilāl, the ascetic; Muṭarrif b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Marwānī, their client; Yaḥyā b. ʿUmar al-Kinānī al-Andalusī; ʿĪsā b. Miskīn; Ḥamdīs; Ibn Mughīth; Ibn al-Ḥaddād; and a great many other jurists.