under Abū al-Walīd and the scholar Abū Sahl; he also enjoyed a special companionship with Imām Abū Bakr al-Ṣibghī. The Imām would consult him on questions of inquiry and on matters of jarḥ wa-taʿdīl (narrator criticism and accreditation), and in his testament he entrusted him with the affairs of his school, Dār al-Sunnah, delegating to him as well the supervision of its endowments.
He engaged in scholarly discussions with authorities such as al-Jiʿābī and Abū ʿAlī al-Māsarjisī, the ḥāfiẓ who was the foremost memoriser of his day.
Al-Ḥākim began writing in 337 AH, and the works that issued from his pen may well approach one thousand fascicles devoted to extracting the contents of the two Ṣaḥīḥs, hidden defects, biographical entries, topical chapters, and the traditions of individual teachers, along with larger compilations such as Maʿrifat ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth (1), al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn (2), Tārīkh al-Naysābūriyyīn, Muzakkī al-Akhbār, al-Madkhal ilā ʿIlm al-Ṣaḥīḥ, al-Iklīl, Faḍāʾil al-Shāfiʿī, and many others (3).
I have heard our shaykhs speak of his days, relating that the leading figures of his time—such as Abū Sahl al-Ṣuʿlūkī, Imām Ibn Fūrak, and the rest of the eminent scholars—would set him ahead of themselves, acknowledge the right of his excellence, and accord him the utmost deference.
ʿAbd al-Ghāfir then enlarged upon such praise, saying: “These few lines are but a drop from the overflowing sea of his life and states. Whoever reflects on his words in his books, observes his method in the sessions he dictated, and studies his handling of the pathways of ḥadīth will yield to his superiority and confess his singular merit.”