63 – Abū Tāhir al-Thaqafī Aḥmad ibn Maḥmūd ibn Aḥmad
The Shaykh, scholar and reliable ḥadith authority, the Musnid of Isfahān: Abū Tāhir Aḥmad ibn Maḥmūd ibn Aḥmad ibn Maḥmūd al-Thaqafī al-Iṣbahānī, an educator and the grandfather of the later Yaḥyā ibn Maḥmūd al-Thaqafī.

He was born in 360 AH.

He studied under Abū al-Shaykh (1).

Among those from whom he narrated were: Abū Bakr ibn al-Muqriʾ, Abū Aḥmad ibn Jamīl, Abū Muslim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Shahdil, Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Khulqānī, the ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mandah, and a large group besides them.

He devoted himself to this pursuit, traveled to Rayy, and heard from Jaʿfar ibn Fannākī the Musnad of Ibn Hārūn al-Ruyānī (2).

Yaḥyā ibn Mandah said: “He heard the book al-ʿAẓamah from Abū al-Shaykh ibn Ḥayyān, and he used to say, ‘I heard from Abū al-Shaykh,’ yet he did not make that audition public until after Abū al-Shaykh’s death.

“He was a righteous, trustworthy shaykh, with a vast body of transmissions, owner of authoritative source-texts, fine handwriting, and accepted standing; staunch in his allegiance to Ahl al-Sunnah. His audition of the Musnad of al-Ruyānī only came to light after al-Ruyānī’s death, and his audition of the book al-ʿAẓamah emerged shortly after Abū al-Shaykh’s demise.”

I say: Those who transmitted from him include Yaḥyā ibn Mandah, Saʿīd ibn Abī al-Rajāʾ, and Muḥammad