ABSTRACT
Seven years would pass before another student of traditions and jurisprudence, the twenty-four-year-old ~bd aI-Malik b. ~bd aI-l:Iamld al-MaymanI, would testify that he considered himself to be Ibn l:Ianbal's pupi1. 2 Like Muhanna al-ShamI, al-MaymanI was a Syrian. In comparison to the other early disciples, al-MaymanI's standing was unique both among the I:Ianbalis and outside their circle. His superior status outside the l:Ianbali circle is indicated by the fact that he was the only one of Ibn l:Ianbal's early disciples to merit an entry in Ibn l:Iajar
al-~sqalanI's (d. 852) compendium of Traditionists, the Tahdhw. His exceptional standing among the l:Ianbalis is described by Aba Bakr al-Khallal, the earliest historian of the l:Ianbali school: 'He [Ibn l:Ianbal] did with him [al-MaymanI] what he [Ibn I:Ianbal] did not do with anyone else. '3 Their special activities were probably related to the answering of masa-'il. This somewhat vague description gives the reader the sense that al-MaymanI enjoyed a singular position within the l:Ianbali circle.
