235 – Ibn Luʾluʾ, ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Baghdādī
The imam, ḥadith scholar, and musnid, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Nuṣayr ibn ʿArafah ibn Luʾluʾ al-Baghdādī, the bookseller.
He was born in 281 AH.
He studied under Ḥamzah ibn Muḥammad al-Kātib, Ibrāhīm ibn Sharīk, al-Firyābī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Nājiya, Ibrāhīm ibn Hāshim al-Baghawī, Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Sājī, Muḥammad ibn al-Mujaddir, and several others.
Among those who transmitted from him were al-Barqānī, Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Khallāl, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAtīqī, Abū al-Qāsim al-Tanūkhī, Abū Muḥammad al-Jawharī, and others.
Al-Barqānī said, “Ibn Luʾluʾ used to charge two dāniqs for narrating a ḥadith. He lived comfortably and was truthful, but his handwriting was poor—meaning his copies were faulty—and more than once he corrupted the text, turning ‘from ʿUtay, from Ubay’ into ‘from ʿAn ʿAn, from Abī.’ (1)”
ʿUbayd Allāh al-Azharī said, “Ibn Luʾluʾ is reliable.” (2)
Al-ʿAtīqī stated, “He died in Muḥarram of the year 377 AH. Most of his books were in his own hand, yet he did not grasp the substance of ḥadith; still, his case is taken to rest on truthfulness.” (3)