274 – Bunān the Porter, Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥamdān
The imām, traditionist, ascetic, and Shaykh al-Islām: Abū al-Ḥasan Bunān ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥamdān ibn Saʿīd al-Wāsiṭī, who settled in Egypt and whose devotion became proverbial.
He narrated ḥadith from al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Zaʿfarānī, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah, Ḥumayd ibn al-Rabīʿ, and others.
Narrating from him were Ibn Yūnus, al-Ḥasan ibn Rushayq, al-Zubayr ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Asdābādhī, Abū Bakr the Qur’an-reciter, and a number of additional transmitters.
Abū Saʿīd ibn Yūnus deemed him reliable.
He kept company with al-Junayd and other masters. It was said that he was the teacher of al-Ḥusayn Abū al-Nūrī, his companion, and one of his peers.
Held in high esteem, he would accept nothing from the ruling authorities and enjoyed remarkable prestige among both the elite and the common people.
( ) Abu al-Walid al-Baji states in the introduction to his work Fi Asma Rijal al-Bukhari: “The hadith scholar Abu Dharr ʿAbd al-Rahim ibn Ahmad al-Harawi told me: the hadith scholar Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Ahmad al-Mustamli narrated: ‘I copied Sahih al-Bukhari from the author’s own manuscript that was in the possession of Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri. I found parts that were unfinished and others only in draft form: some chapter headings had nothing written beneath them, while certain hadith had no heading at all. We therefore brought together what belonged together…’ ” See Ibn Hajar, Muqaddimat Fath al-Bari, p. 6.
(*) Principal biographical sources: Abu ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Sulami, Tabaqat al-Sufiyya, pp. 291-294; Abu Nuʿaym, Hilyat al-Awliya, vol. 10, pp. 324-325; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, vol. 7, pp. 100-102; al-Qushayri, al-Risala al-Qushayriyya, p. 24; Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Muntazam, vol. 6, p. 217; Ibn al-Jawzi, Sifat al-Safwa, vol. 2, pp. 448-450; al-Dhahabi, al-ʿIbar, vol. 2, pp. 163-164; al-Dhahabi, Duwal al-Islam, vol. 1, pp. 190-191; al-Safadi, al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat, vol. 10, pp. 289-290; al-Yafiʿi, Mirat al-Jinan, vol. 2, pp. 268-269; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, vol. 11, pp. 158-159; Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Kattani, Tabaqat al-Awliya, pp. 122-124; Ibn Taghribirdi, al-Nujum al-Zahira, vol. 3, pp. 220-221; al-Suyuti, Husn al-Muhadara, vol. 1, pp. 512-513; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharāt al-Dhahab, vol. 2, pp. 271-273.