The sixth/twelfth-century scholar Samʿānī devotes a section of his biographical dictionary of traditionists to the Sāmānids. He writes of Aḥmad b. Asad’s hearing of ḥadīth from prominent traditionists and also of his sons’ relating ḥadīth from him. According to Samʿānī, the ḥadīths transmitted by these princes usually touched on topics such as raiding at the frontier (ghazw), justice, and respect for scholars, all of which are common themes in the genre of mirrors for princes. In her analysis of Islamic mirrors-for-princes literature on judging in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, Louise Marlow refers to these learned Sāmānids as examples of a “semiprofessional” group of religious scholars.
This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar A. Rabb and Abigail Krasner Balbale(ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of primary sources and other material used in and related to the book.