from ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and he learned jurisprudence from his own father and from ʿAlī ibn ʿAththam.
Among those who narrated from him were Abū al-Naḍr—his shaykh—Bishr ibn al-Ḥakam, al-Dhuhlī, Aḥmad ibn al-Azhar, al-Nasāʾī in his Sunan, Muslim in some of his writings—who also declared him trustworthy—Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ṭālib, the imām Ibn Khuzaymah, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb ibn al-Akhram, al-Ḥasan ibn Yaʿqūb, and others.
Al-Ḥākim said: “He used to issue fatwas in fiqh, ḥadith, and Arabic, and people would refer to him in these matters.”
When conversation turned to the rulers, Abū Aḥmad prayed, “O Allah, make them forget about me, and if anyone intends to mention me to them, tighten his heart so he will not mention me.” (1)
Abū Aḥmad also said, “The first thing I wrote was in the year 197 AH.”
I say: He died a little past ninety years of age, toward the end of 272 AH. Some said he lived ninety-five years.
Muslim selected (ḥadiths) from him.
And in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (2) it reads: “Abū Aḥmad narrated to us…”
(1) al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-huffaz, vol. 2, p. 599.
(2) Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 4, p. 239, Book of Conditions, chapter: “If the share-cropping contract stipulates: ‘Whenever I wish, I may dismiss you.’”
Al-Hafiz (Ibn Hajar) comments on Bukhari’s wording “Narrated to us Abu Ahmad” as follows: In most copies the narrator is left unnamed and unattributed. In the recension of Ibn al-Sakan transmitted from al-Firabri—and Abu Dharr concurs—the wording is: “Narrated to us Abu Ahmad Mirar b. Hamuyah,” a well-known, reliable Hamadhani, and this is his only hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari. Al-Hakim reports that the people of Bukhara claim the narrator to be Abu Ahmad Muhammad b. Yusuf al-Baykandi, while it is also possible that Bukhari meant Abu Ahmad Muhammad b. Abd al-Wahhab al-Farra, for Abu Amr al-Mastamli related the hadith from him through Abu Ghassan.
The soundest position is that found in Ibn al-Sakan’s version and those who agree with him. Abu Nuaym states categorically that the narrator is the aforementioned Mirar, adding: “Bukhari did not name him, yet the hadith is his,” and he then transmitted it through the chain of Musa b. Harun from Mirar.
I (Ibn Hajar) add: al-Darqutni likewise reproduced it in al-Gharaib through that same chain; Ibn Wahb related it from Malik without an isnad; and Umar b. Shabba included it in Akhbar al-Madinah—see the Introduction, pp. 236–237.