al-Aṣamm, yet you wish to hear it from someone else?! (1)

Abu Ahmad al-Hakim said: I heard Ibn Abi Hatim remark, “No transmitter of the book al-Mabsut is still alive except Abu al-ʿAbbas al-Warraq, and we have been informed that he is reliable and truthful.” (2)

Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Hakim related: “One day I was with Abu al-ʿAbbas in his mosque. He stepped out to make the call to the afternoon prayer, stood where the muʾadhdhin stands, and in a loud voice proclaimed, ‘Rabīʿ ibn Sulaymān informed us; al-Shafiʿi informed us.’ Then he laughed, the people laughed, and after that he gave the adhān. (3)

Al-Hakim also said: I heard al-Aṣamm come out while we were in his mosque, and the thoroughfare was filled with people—in Rabiʿ al-Awwal of the year 344 AH. He used to dictate from his compilations every Monday afternoon. When he looked at the multitude of attendees and strangers, who had begun to knock for him and to carry him on their shoulders from the door of his house to his mosque, he sat on the wall of the mosque and wept for a long time. Then he looked at the prompter and said, “Write: I heard Muhammad ibn Ishaq al-Saghani say: I heard al-Ashajj say: I heard ʿAbd Allah ibn Idris say:

‘One day, after al-Aʿmash had passed away, I came to his door and knocked. A maidservant who recognized me answered, crying out ‘Alas! Alas!’ and weeping. She said, “O ʿAbd Allah, what has become of the great crowds of Arabs who used to assemble at this door?”’ (5)

He then wept profusely and added, ‘It is as though I see this street with no one entering it at all…’ (6)