- Al-Harbi, Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Yaḥyā
The shaykh, scholar, man of letters, and long-lived authority: Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā ibn Ḥarb, the nephew of the ascetic Aḥmad ibn Ḥarb al-Naysābūrī. He was also called al-Muzakkī and al-Ḥarbī, the latter being a nisba taken from his grandfather.
He heard ḥadith from Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj, Makkī ibn ʿAbdān, Aḥmad ibn Ḥamdūn al-Aʿmashī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Sharqī, ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd, and a number of others.
Among those who narrated from him were al-Ḥākim, Abū Bakr al-Ardustānī, Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAmr—a teacher of al-Khaṭīb—Abū Saʿd Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥākim, Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Ismāʿīlī, Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad al-Baḥīrī, Abū Naṣr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī the merchant, and others.
He was cultured, versed in historical reports, learned, versatile, a leader of standing and dignity—counted among the truthful and trustworthy, though he did hold an element of innovation. He lived to a great age, and people had need of him.
He died in the month of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, in the year 394 AH, having entered his hundredth year.
In that same year there also died the Andalusian musnid, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Dayfūn al-Lakhamī al-Qurṭubī—he had heard (1) Ibn al-Aʿrābī and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūnus.