Abū Yaʿqūb Isḥāq ibn Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sarakhsī—later known as al-Harawī—and nicknamed al-Qarrāb, the ḥadith scholar of Herat and the author of many works; his brother has already been mentioned (1).

He was born in 352 AH and strove for knowledge with unmatched diligence.

Abū al-Naḍr al-Fāmī said: “The number of his teachers exceeded one thousand two hundred. He compiled al-Wafayāt, arranged year by year, in two volumes; the book Nasīm al-Muhaj; the book al-Uns wa al-Salwah; the book Shamāʾil al-ʿIbād; and other works besides.”

He added: “He was an ascetic, owning little of this world.”

I say: He received ḥadith from al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl al-Naḍruwī, from his maternal grandfather Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣuyah, from Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Sayyārī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥammūyah al-Sarakhsī, from Zāhir ibn Aḥmad the jurist, from Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nuʿaymī, from al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad al-Sijzī, from Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥamzah, from al-Ḥusayn ibn Aḥmad al-Shammākhī (2) al-Ṣaffār (3), from Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bazzāz, and from many others after them, until he even wrote ḥadith from his contemporaries and those younger than he.

Narrated from him were Shaykh al-Islām ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī, and Aḥmad ibn