I have listed them alphabetically by first name. 5.1

NAMES BEGINNING WITH ALIF Men named Aḥmad Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Khālid. Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Kathīr al- Dawraqī, called Abū ʿAbd Allāh. Aḥmad ibn Jamīl, called Abū Yūsuf. He was from Marv but settled in Baghdad. He sold wheat in Qaṭīʿat al-Rabīʿ. Aḥmad ibn Janāb ibn al-Mughīrah, called Abū l-Walīd al-Ḥadīthī and al-Miṣṣīṣī. Aḥmad ibn Janāḥ, called Abū Ṣāliḥ. Aḥmad ibn Ḥātim ibn Yazīd the Tall, called Abū Jaʿfar al-Khayyāṭ. Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥajjāj, called Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Dhuhlī, from Marv. Aḥmad ibn Dāwūd, called Abū Saʿīd al-Ḥaddād al-Wāsiṭī. Aḥmad ibn Abī Shuʿayb (whose name was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim), Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī, client of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Wāqid, called Abū Yaḥyā l-Jazarī l-Ḥarrānī, and often referred to using his grandfather’s name, that is, as Aḥmad ibn Wāqid. Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ, Abū Jaʿfar al-Miṣrī. Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb al-Warrāq, called Abū Jaʿfar. 5.2

[The list continues down through names beginning with yāʾ, the last letter of the Arabic alphabet.] WOMEN FROM WHOM AḤMAD TRANSMITTED HADITH Umm ʿAmr bint Ḥassān ibn Yazīd al-Thaqafī. 5.84

NOTE Aḥmad encountered a number of righteous ascetics, some of whom we have listed among his sources of Hadith. Others, of whom some were too busy with reverential practices to transmit Hadith, he met but did not hear any reports from. In the course of this book, we will, God willing, have occasion to mention many of the ascetics he encountered. 5.87

[Aḥmad:] To my mind, nothing comes close to being poor. Do you know what it means to suffer poverty without complaint? I’ve seen so many upright men: men like ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs, as old as he was, wearing a tunic of felt.44 I’ve seen Abū Dāwūd al-Ḥafarī wearing a ripped tunic with the cotton coming out of it, praying from sunset to nighttime while swaying on his feet from hunger. I’ve seen Ayyūb ibn al-Najjār in Mecca after he gave up all his property, walking around the city carrying a rope and pail to draw water from the wells. He gave up everything he owned; he was a true worshipper. He had lived with the things of this world, but left them all in the hands of Yaḥyā l-Qaṭṭān. I’ve seen Ibn Bajālah the Worshipper; I used to hear the sound of his shoes as he circled the Kaʿbah at night. In the mosque there was also someone called al-ʿArfī45 who would stay up from nightfall to dawn, weeping the whole time. When I went to see what he looked like, he turned out to be a pale young man. I’ve seen Ḥusayn al-Juʿfī, who was like a monk. In Kufa I met no one better than Ḥusayn al- Juʿfī. In Basra the best was Saʿīd ibn ʿĀmir. 5.88