whereupon he urged again, “I adjure you—tell me.”

Abū al-ʿAbbās replied, “I know by heart one hundred thousand ḥadith, complete with their chains of transmission and their texts, and I can cross-examine three hundred thousand ḥadith.” (1)

Abū al-ʿAlāʾ added, “I heard a number of people relate the same claim from Abū al-ʿAbbās.” (2)

With this same chain: Abū al-Qāsim al-Tanūkhī—reciting from memory—narrated to us; I heard Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-ʿAlawī say:

“Leadership in Kūfah first belonged to Banī al-Ghadan, then the authority of Banī ʿUbayd Allāh became widespread. My father resolved to fight them and gathered the troops. Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿUqda came to him carrying a fascicle of thirty-six folios that contained many ḥadith on maintaining family ties. My father was impressed and considered it a large compilation, so he said to him,
‘Abū al-ʿAbbās, reports of your prodigious memory have reached me and I find them astonishing. How much have you actually memorised?’

He answered, ‘With full chains and texts I have memorised two hundred and fifty thousand ḥadith, and I can debate six hundred thousand ḥadith—chains, some texts, as well as mursal and interrupted reports.’ (3)

With this same chain: Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Makhlad al-Warrāq—in the presence of al-Barqānī—narrated to us; I heard ʿAbd Allāh al-Fārisī—whom al-Barqānī knew—say:

“I stayed with my brothers in Kūfah for several years, writing down ḥadith from Ibn ʿUqda. When we were about to depart we bid him farewell, and he said,
‘So you think you have taken enough of what you have heard from me! From the least of the teachers I have heard, I still possess one hundred thousand ḥadith.’

I replied, ‘Shaykh, we are four brothers, and each of us has written one hundred thousand ḥadith from you.’” (4)