hadith and its preservation—utterly trustworthy, reliable; since al-Daraqutni I have seen no one his equal. (1)

I (the author) say: His association with the Ubaydid regime was merely a matter of prudent accommodation; had he openly opposed them, the Fatimid caliph of Egypt, al-Hakim—who is said to have claimed divinity—would have eradicated him. I suspect he even held an official post under them. Yet he was one of the leading traditionalists, reared upon the sunnah and steadfast adherence before the appearance of the Shiʿi state, and he remained committed to hadith throughout. What he did, however, was to conciliate and show deference to those people; for that reason the ḥāfiẓ Abu Dharr refused to take transmissions from him.

ʿAbd al-Ghani’s funeral was enormous, widely discussed among the populace. Ahead of the bier a caller proclaimed: “This is the man who purified the reports of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from falsehood!”

Abu Ishaq al-Habbal said: “He passed away on the seventh of Safar, 409 AH.”

I add: That same year the following musnad-transmitting scholars of hadith also died: Abu al-Husayn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Mutayyim (2) of Baghdad, the preacher; Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Salt al-Ahwazi (3)—both teachers of Abu Bakr al-Khatib; Abu Muhammad ʿAbd Allah ibn Yusuf al-Isbahani (4), the Sufi, teacher of al-Bayhaqi; the long-lived Abu al-Hasan ʿAli ibn Muhammad ibn ʿAli ibn Khazafa (5) al-Saydalanī al-Wasiti; and Abu Talha al-Qasim ibn Abi al-Mundhir al-Qazwini, the preacher—the transmitter of Sunan Ibn Majah.

ʿIsa ibn ʿAbd al-Razzaq informed us; Jaʿfar al-Hamdani informed us; Abu Tahir al-Silafi informed us; I heard Jaʿfar ibn Ahmad al-Lughawi say, “I heard Muhammad ibn ʿAli…”