ʿAbd Allah ibn Idrīs al-Awdi al-Kūfan (1) had heard ḥadīths from al-Aʿmash, Ibn Jurayj, Shuʿbah, Mālik, and many others, and large numbers of leading scholars transmitted from him. Hārūn al-Rashīd once summoned him, intending to appoint him judge. He replied, “I am not qualified,” and refused most emphatically. The caliph had already approached Wakīʿ, who likewise declined; he then turned to Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth, who accepted. The caliph allotted each of the three five thousand as compensation for the expenses of their journey, but Wakīʿ and Ibn Idrīs would not take it, whereas Ḥafṣ did; thereupon Ibn Idrīs swore never again to speak to him.
On one of his pilgrimages al-Rashīd passed through Kūfa accompanied by the chief judge Abū Yūsuf, and by his two sons al-Amīn and al-Maʾmūn. The caliph ordered the senior ḥadīth scholars to gather so that his sons might hear from them. All of them came except Ibn Idrīs and ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus. After completing their session with those present, al-Amīn and al-Maʾmūn mounted up and rode to Ibn Idrīs, who then recited to them one hundred ḥadīths. Al-Maʾmūn said, “Uncle, if you wish I shall repeat them from memory.” When permission was granted, he repeated them exactly as he had heard them, astonishing Ibn Idrīs with his powers of retention. Al-Maʾmūn then ordered that money be given to him, but he would not accept a thing. The princes next went to ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus, listened to him, and al-Maʾmūn directed that ten thousand be offered to him; he refused. Assuming this sum seemed too small, the prince doubled it. ʿĪsā replied, “By Allah, even if you were to fill this mosque with your wealth up to its roof, I would not take a single coin in return for the ḥadīths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).”
When Ibn Idrīs lay on his death-bed, his daughter wept. He said, “Why do you cry? In this very house I have completed four thousand full readings of the Qur’an.”
Ṣaʿṣaʿah ibn Salām (2)—some say Ibn ʿAbd Allah—Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Dimashqī later migrated to al-Andalus, settling there in the days of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muʿāwiyah (3) and his son Hāshim. He was the first to bring the science of ḥadīth and the school of al-Awzāʿī into al-Andalus (4), and he served as prayer-leader in Córdoba. During his tenure trees were planted in the great mosque there, something approved by the followers of al-Awzāʿī and the Syrians, though disliked by Mālik and his companions.
He transmitted from Mālik, al-Awzāʿī, and Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, and a number of scholars—among them the jurist ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ḥabīb—transmitted from him. Ibn Ḥabīb mentions him in his book “al-Fuquhāʾ.” He is also recorded by Ibn Yūnus in his “History of Egypt” and by al-Ḥumaydī in his “History of al-Andalus,” both of whom date his death to this very year. On the authority of his teacher Ibn Ḥazm it is related that Ṣaʿṣaʿah was the first to introduce the school of al-Awzāʿī into al-Andalus.
Ibn Yūnus adds that he was the first to import the study of ḥadīth there, and notes that he died close to 180 AH. Al-Ḥumaydī’s statement that he passed away in the present year, however, is the sounder opinion.