The Ḥilyat al-awliyā'

Abū Nuʿaym Aḥmad b. ʿAbdullāh al-Iṣfahānī (d. 430/1038), the assumed author of the Ḥilyat al-awliyā’, is remembered primarily as a Shafi’ite hadith transmitter. Subkī mentions that about eighty people transmitted hadiths from him. ¹ Later tradition reinforces Abū Nuʿaym ’s Shafi’ite credentials by associating him with Shafi’ite/Hanbalite rivalries in his home town; he is even attributed with the miracle of causing the mosque of Isfahan to collapse and crush its congregation, in response to being expelled on account of his loyalty to Shafi’ism. ²