as well as Wasit, Khurasan, and Isfahan. He devoted particular attention to the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections, but related only a few reports, and those merely for purposes of scholarly review.

(1) He said: “He was truthful, religiously upright, scrupulous, and perceptive. Imam Abū Ḥāmid al-Isfarāyinī led the funeral prayer over him in Baghdad and served as his executor. Al-ʿAtīqī told me that he died in 401 AH.”

I say: Another authority states that he passed away in the month of Rajab, 400 AH.

I examined a fascicle containing hadiths with hidden defects compiled by Abū Masʿūd; it bears witness to his standing as an authority.

Musallam ibn Muḥammad al-Qaysī, Muʾammal ibn Muḥammad, and Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb wrote to me, saying:

“Al-Kindī informed us; Abū Manṣūr al-Shaybānī informed us; Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb informed us; Hibat Allah ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṭabarī informed us; Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad, the ḥāfiẓ, informed us; ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad al-Muzanī narrated to us; al-Walīd ibn Abān al-Wāsitī narrated to us; al-Naḍr ibn Salamah reported to us; ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar al-Fihrī informed us, from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar, from his brother Yaḥyā, who said:

My brother ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿUmar related to me, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reached the valley of Muḥassir, he urged his mount forward and said, “Make sure you use the small pebbles (2).”