159 – al-Muhallabī, Abū Yaʿlā Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad*
The shaykh, trustworthy authority and scholar; preceptor of physicians: Abū Yaʿlā Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥamzah al-Muhallabī, of Nīshāpūr—one of the last remaining masters.
He received ḥadith from Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Dallūwayh, a companion of al-Bukhārī; Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Qaṭṭān; Abū Ḥāmid ibn Bilāl; Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Iṣbahānī; and many others.
In his day he stood unrivalled.
He is the transmitter of the musalsal of primacy (1).
Among those who narrated from him are Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim, Abū Naṣr ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Saʿīd al-Sijzī, Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī al-Tūsī, Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Taflisī, Abū Bakr ibn Khalaf, and others.
Al-Ḥākim said, “Abū Yaʿlā al-Ṣaydalanī kept company with the masters and sought out ḥadith, then went on to excel in the science of medicine” (2).
I add: he passed away on the Day of Eid al-Adhā in 406 AH, having nearly reached ninety years of age.
He was a descendant of the Khurāsān governor al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah al-Azdī (3).