and Abū al-Qāsim al-Ḥarfī, together with a number of others in Baghdad.
He also auditioned ḥadith in Mosul, Manbij (1) and Nisibis (2), and he copied both higher and lower isnāds, to the point that he transcribed the whole of Tarīkh Baghdad from Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb.
Those who narrated from him include: al-Khaṭīb, al-Ḥumaydī, Abū al-Fityān al-Dihistānī, Abū al-Qāsim al-Nasīb, Hibat Allāh ibn al-Akfānī, ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Ḥamzah, Ismāʿīl ibn al-Samarqandī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAqīl al-Fārisī, Abū al-Mufaḍḍal Yaḥyā ibn ʿAlī al-Qurashī, and many others besides them.
He compiled and authored works, though his expertise was of moderate rank, and his first audition took place in 407 AH.
Ibn Mākūlā (3) said: “He wrote from me and I from him; he was prolific and precise.”
Al-Khaṭīb (4) said: “Reliable and trustworthy.”
Al-Akfānī said: “He recited the Qurʾān abundantly, was truthful, and sound in creed. He died in Jumādā al-Ākhirah, 466 AH.”
Ibn al-Akfānī added: “He granted a general ijāzah for all his transmissions to anyone who met him during his lifetime before his death.” (5)
I say: Among those who received this ijāzah from him were Maḥfūẓ ibn Ṣaṣrā and others.
He was constant in recitation and wholly devoted to the pursuit of ḥadith. His father missed him and travelled after him to Baghdad, where he found him cooking rice with meat. The son served it to him, and the father said, “O—”