The Life Of Ibn Hanbal by Ibn Al-Jawzi

[Al-Maymūnī:] Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal wore garments of a medium length.254 His outermost garment255 was worth fifteen dirhams, while his tunic256 was of the sort that could be bought for about a dinar. The tunic was neither too fine nor too coarse. His outermost garment was fringed. 48.1

[Ḥamdan ibn ʿAlī:] Aḥmad’s clothing was nothing special, beyond being of clean cotton. Toward the end of his life, after his sons no longer depended on his income and he could spend it on himself, he wore clothing of better quality. 48.2

[Al-Fadl ibn Ziyād:] I remember seeing Aḥmad dressed for winter in two long tunics, with a colored gown between them. He often wore a tunic and a heavy fur:

when it got very cold, I would see him wearing the fur over his gown. I also saw him wearing a heavy wrap, with a turban wound around his cap.257 48.3

One day I heard Abū ʿImrān al-Wirkānī say to him, “That’s quite a lot you’ve got on!” He laughed and said, “I don’t like the cold.” He often wore a cap without winding a turban around it.

[Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad:] I saw Aḥmad wearing a tightly threaded striped gown258

and a cap with a turban. In the winter he sometimes wore a fur, sometimes a gown, and sometimes both. 48.4

[Muḥammad ibn Mughīrah:] I saw Aḥmad wearing a tunic, trousers, and a mantle259 in the summer. He sometimes wore a tunic with a mantle thrown over it, often wearing the mantle directly over the tunic. 48.5

[Ḥanbal:] I saw Aḥmad wearing a pair of trousers pulled up above the waist, with a tunic on top. 48.6

[Al-Maymūnī:] I saw Aḥmad preside over a gathering of Hadith transmitters and other people while wearing one breechclout around his waist and another draped over his shoulder. I never saw him wear a cowl or shawl,260 or a proper mantle, only a small breechclout that looked six cubits long. I asked his uncle about it and he confirmed that it was six cubits.261 48.7

[Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd:] I saw Aḥmad one summer day wearing a tunic and a breechclout tied around his waist. I never saw him with his sleeves unrolled (when he was out walking, that is). 48.8

[Ibn al-Ashʿath:] I used to see Aḥmad wearing his breechclout loosely draped. 48.9

[Ṣāliḥ:] My father had a cap he had sewed himself. It was lined with cotton. When he got up at night he would put it on. 48.10

[Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn:] I saw one of Aḥmad’s caps. It had one patch of striped cloth and another of Marawī262 white. 48.11

[Ibn Zanjuwayh:] I saw Aḥmad wearing a green gown patched with a piece of white wool. 48.12

[Ḥamdān ibn ʿAlī:] I saw Aḥmad wearing a gown patched in a different color. 48.13

[Al-Marrūdhī:] Aḥmad needed to patch his shirt but didn’t have a patch, so he decided to cut a patch from his breechclout. We cut it for him and sewed on the patch.

More than once, when he needed a scrap of cloth, he cut it from his breechclout. 48.14

Once he asked me to repair some leather shoes he had worn for seventeen years.

From the stitching on the outside I could see that they had already been repaired five or six times already.

[Ibn Maʿbad:] I saw Abū ʿAbd Allāh wearing yellow sandals. 48.15

[Al-Marrūdhī:] I once brought Aḥmad a new pair of leather shoes that had been made for him. He kept them overnight, but in the morning he said: “I’ve been thinking about those shoes”—he may even have said “most of the night”—“and couldn’t sleep, so I’ve decided not to wear them. How much time do I have left, anyway? More than half my life is over.” 48.16

Taking a battered old pair of shoes he had, he said, “Here, slap some patches onto these.” He added, “Do you know how long I’ve had these? More than sixteen years, and they were used when I got them. These here”—meaning the new ones—“were weighing on my mind.” [Al-Muzanī:] I once noticed that Aḥmad wore trousers that ended above the ankle. 48.17

[Al-Marrūdhī:] I saw Aḥmad wearing a murabbaʿ263 outer garment. He often put the end of it under his feet when he prayed. 48.18