He was counted among the foremost pupils of the judge Abū Bakr al-Abharī and is usually mentioned together with Abū al-Qāsim al-Jallāb.

Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī said, “He has an extensive book on disputed legal questions; I do not know of any work on points of disagreement better than it.” (1)

Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (2) remarked, “He was a scholar of uṣūl and a skilled dialectician, and he held the judgeship of Baghdad.”

Abū Dharr said, “Of all the Mālikīs I met, he was the most learned; he was reliable but narrated only a few ḥadith.” (3)

Ibn Abī al-Fawāris stated, “He died on the eighth of Dhū al-Qaʿda in the year 397 AH.” Others say he died in 398, but the first report is sounder.

68 – al-Qaṣṣār, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad*

The jurist and imām Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar al-Iṣbahānī, known as al-Qaṣṣār, was among the leading Shāfiʿīs.

He transmitted ḥadith from Abū ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Fāris, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khālid al-Zādhānī, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn ʿAbbād, and the judge Abū Aḥmad al-ʿAssāl.