Aḥmad ibn al-Mubārak al-Mustamli, the Naysābūrī—also known as Biḥamkuwayh—

He received narrations from Yazīd ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Farrāʾ, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd, Sahl ibn ʿUthmān al-ʿAskari, ʿUbayd Allāh al-Qawārīrī, Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh, Abū Muṣʿab, Surayj ibn Yūnus, their contemporaries, and those who followed them. He wrote prolifically and remained dedicated to this discipline until his death.

Those who transmitted from him include Abū ʿAmr Aḥmad ibn Naṣr al-Khuffāf, Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Sawwār, Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ḥayrī, Abū Ḥāmid ibn al-Sharqī, Zanjuwayah ibn Muḥammad, Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Hāniʾ, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb ibn al-Akhram, Abū al-Ṭayyib ibn al-Mubārak, Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd al-Zāhid, and others.

Al-Ḥākim said, “His prayers were answered; he was the ascetic of his age.” Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ related: “We were with Abū ʿAmr al-Mustamli when he heard a disturbance and asked, ‘What is that noise?’ They replied, ‘It is Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh (1)—meaning the Khujustānī—marching with his forces.’ He invoked, ‘O Allah, tear open his belly,’ and before the week was out the man was killed.”

I heard ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Fāmī say: “I attended the session of Abū ʿUthmān the ascetic, and Abū ʿAmr al-Mustamli entered wearing worn-out clothes, whereupon Abū ʿUthmān wept. Later, on the day of the remembrance gathering, he said: ‘A certain scholar (2) came in to see him; my heart was taken up by the shabby state of his attire, and had I not held him in reverence I would have named him.’ He said, ‘He then hurled at the people…’”