and ʿAtīq ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Ruwaydashtī (1), along with others.

ʿAbd al-Ghāfir ibn Ismāʿīl said: “He studied the Ṣaḥīḥ in Marw.”

I add: He also heard it in Herat from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Shurayḥ.

Al-Silafī relates: I heard Abū Bakr al-Samʿānī say, “I heard Ṣāliḥ ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, the muʾadhdhin, say, ‘My father held a poor opinion of Saʿīd al-ʿAyyār and took particular exception to what he narrated from Bishr ibn Aḥmad al-Isfarāʾīnī.’”

I comment: Because of this, al-Bayhaqī did not cite any narrations of his on the authority of Bishr, even though it is quite possible that he did hear from him. The ḥāfiẓ Ibn Nuqṭah records that al-ʿAyyār was born in 345 AH, and al-Bayhaqī does cite him transmitting from Zāhir ibn Aḥmad.

Faḍl Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭabasī said: “Al-ʿAyyār was a dignified and pleasant shaykh who lived to one hundred and twelve years.”

He further reported that al-ʿAyyār would not transmit anything until he saw, in Damascus, a dream that moved him to begin narrating. He said, “I saw the Prophet ﷺ, and Abū Bakr met me with a message from him: ‘Why do you not relate my reports and disseminate them?’ Since that moment I have been travelling through the lands, narrating what I have heard.” (2)

Gayth al-Armanāzī said: I asked a number of people, “Why was he called al-ʿAyyār?” They replied, “Because, in his early days, he followed the ways of the ʿayyārīn (street toughs).” (3)