166 – Abū Manṣūr al-Azdī Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh
The erudite scholar, ḥadith specialist, and judge: Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad (1) ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Azdī, of Herat, a Shāfiʿī.
He narrated from al-Ḥasan ibn ʿImrān al-Ḥanẓalī al-Harawī, and when he performed the pilgrimage he heard in Kūfa from Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Duḥaym, and in Baghdad from Abū Muḥammad Daalaj al-Sijzī, Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān al-Ādamī, and several others.
He held dictation sessions for a period, and in his day he was the leading authority of the Shāfiʿīs in Herat, distinguished for devotion, virtue, and lofty chains of transmission.
Those who transmitted from him include Aḥmad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥamdayn, Abū Saʿd Yaḥyā ibn Abī Naṣr al-ʿAdl, Abū ʿAdnān al-Qāsim ibn ʿAlī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-ʿUmayrī, Shaykh al-Islām Abū Ismāʿīl al-Anṣārī, and others.
Sultan Maḥmūd (2) ibn Subuktikīn held him in great esteem and treated him with respect because of his piety, steadfast adherence, and praiseworthy qualities (3).
He was nearly ninety years old when he died suddenly in Herat, in Muḥarram of the year 410 AH.
He was a descendant of the commander al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufra.
His son was the imām