Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥasan ibn ʿUbayd ibn ʿAmr ibn Khālid ibn al-Rufayl al-Sulamī, the Baghdadi, known as Ibn al-Muslimah.
Al-Rufayl just mentioned embraced Islam at the hands of ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—(1).
Abū Jaʿfar was born in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the year 375 AH.
He heard ḥadith from Abū al-Faḍl ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Zuhrī—being the last of that shaykh’s students—as well as from the judge Abū Muḥammad ibn Maʿrūf, Ismāʿīl ibn Suwayd, Muḥammad ibn Akhī Mīmī, ʿĪsā ibn al-Wazīr, and Abū Ṭāhir al-Mukhlis.
Those who narrated from him include Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb, Abū ʿAlī al-Bardānī, Tamartāsh ibn Bakhtakīn, al-Qāsim ibn Ṭāhir al-Maʿqilī, Muḥammad ibn Maṭar al-ʿAbbāsī, Abū Saʿd al-Mubārak ibn ʿAlī al-Mukhar-rimī the jurist, Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Zāghūnī, Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Ḥumaydī, Abū al-Ghanāʾim al-Narsī, Abū Bakr the judge of the Maristan, Abū al-Fatḥ ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Bayḍāwī, Muḥammad ibn al-Faraj al-Muʿallim, Hibat Allah ibn Muḥammad al-Rufaylī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Sallāl, Abū Manṣūr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Qazzāz, Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Khayrūn, Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Urmawī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭarāʾifī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Dāyah, and Abū Tammām Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Mukhtār al-Hāshimī—who resided in Nīshābūr—along with many others.
His original manuscripts were reliable, his auditions numerous, and his conduct exemplary.