Likewise, when he says: “Ḥaddathanā ʿAbd Allah, ḥaddathanā Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, ḥaddathanā Ismāʿīl ibn Mujālid, from Bayān, from Wabrah, from Hammām, who said: ʿAmmār stated, ‘I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and with him there were only five male slaves, two women, and Abu Bakr.’” (1)
Some have claimed that this ʿAbd Allah is Ibn Ḥammād al-Āmulī, yet the view I consider more likely is that he is Ibn Ubay.
Al-Abarqūhī informed us; al-Fatḥ and Aḥmad ibn Ṣirmā also related to us, saying: al-Urmawī (2) informed us, Ibn al-Naqqūr informed us, al-Ḥarbī informed us, Aḥmad al-Ṣūfī narrated to us, Yaḥyā narrated to us … and he mentioned the same report.
Ibn Ubay lived for about ninety years, remaining alive until roughly 290 AH—and perhaps a little after that; Allah knows best.
(1) In most copies the chain reads only “… from al-Firabri, from al-Bukhari,” whereas Ibn al-Sakan’s recension adds: “al-Bukhari said: ‘Abd Allah ibn Hamad related to me.’” This identification is also affirmed by al-Kallabadhi and others.
Abd Allah ibn Hamad, whose nisba is al-Amuli (with a long alif and a short u after the m), was known as Abu Abd al-Rahman. Al-Usayli notes that he was one of al-Bukhari’s pupils and that he used to sell writing-paper in his presence.
The report is found in Sahih al-Bukhari, 7/129 (Book of Merits, “The Conversion of Abu Bakr”). Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar remarks that Ibn al-Sakan’s wording is: “Narrated to me by Abd Allah ibn Muhammad.” Abu Ali al-Jayyani assumed this meant the transmitter nicknamed “al-Musnadi” and therefore dismissed the issue. Ibn Hajar objects: in the commentary on Surat al-Tawba we read: “Narrated to us Abd Allah ibn Muhammad; narrated to us Yahya ibn Maʿin.” The decisive point, however, is that Abu Nasr al-Kallabadhi explicitly states that the Abd Allah meant here is Abd Allah ibn Hamad al-Amuli; the same explicit attribution appears in Abu Dharr al-Harawi’s recension. Ibn Hamad was a contemporary of al-Bukhari, indeed slightly younger, while al-Bukhari had met Yahya ibn Maʿin, who was senior to Ibn Hamad.
(2) al-Armawi—with ḍamma on the initial alif, sukūn on the r, and fatḥa on the m—denotes someone from Armiya, a locality in Azerbaijan (see al-Lubab).