Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ziyad al-Isfahani; Makki ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ghamr al-Dimashqi, the amanuensis of al-Mayanaji; and the ḥadith master Hibah Allah ibn al-Hasan al-Lalika’i (1).
221 – Al-Ḥayri, Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn al-Hasan ibn Ahmad: imam, scholar, ḥadith authority, the leading transmitter of Khurasan, and Chief Judge. His full name is Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Abi ‘Ali al-Hasan, son of the ḥadith master Abu ‘Amr Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ḥafṣ ibn Muslim ibn Yazid al-Ḥarashi (2). He was al-Ḥayri, from Nishapur, and a Shafi‘i. His grandfather was the grandson (sibṭ) of Ahmad ibn ‘Amr al-Ḥarashi.
Birth: he was born around the year 325 AH; this dating is given by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Mansur al-Sam‘ani, who also said, “He is reliable in ḥadith.” (3)
I say: he narrated from Abu ‘Ali Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ma‘qil al-Mayadani; Ḥājib ibn Ahmad al-Tusi; Abu al-‘Abbas al-Aṣamm; the latter’s son Abu ‘Ali; Abu Sahl ibn Ziyad al-Qaṭṭān; Abu Bakr ibn Abi Darim al-Kufi; Abu Muhammad al-Fakihi al-Makki; Bukayr ibn Ahmad al-Ḥaddad; Abu Ahmad ibn ‘Adi; and many others.
He studied jurisprudence under Abu al-Walid Ḥassan ibn Muhammad, and he pursued kalam and uṣul under—