of the first forerunners, followed by the rest of the Companions, then the scholars among the Successors, until knowledge of him and faith in him reach an ignorant Bedouin and an ordinary village woman—and even below that. The same pattern is found in people’s knowledge of the religion of Islam. ⦗365⦘

– Bushrā ibn Masīs (1), Abū al-Ḥasan al-Rūmī

He is the son of ʿAbd Allāh: an aged shaykh, devout, truthful, and a reliable transmitter of hadith—Abū al-Ḥasan al-Rūmī al-Fātinī (2), the client of Fātin the amir, a client of al-Muṭīʿ lillāh.

He was captured in Byzantine territory while still beardless. He related: “One of the Banū Ḥamdān gifted me to Fātin, who educated me and allowed me to hear hadith. Later my father came secretly to Baghdad, hoping by gentle means to take me back; but when he saw the state I was in—committed to Islam and absorbed in the pursuit of knowledge—he despaired of reclaiming me and returned.” (3)

He narrated from Abū Bakr ibn al-Haytham al-Anbārī, Muḥammad ibn Badr al-Ḥamāmī (4), ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥātim al-Tirmidhī, Saʿd ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣayrafī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd al-Mukharramī, Ibn Salm al-Khuttulī, and the ḥāfiẓ Abū