ʿImrān Mūsā ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Marwazī—known as al-Ṣaffār—was the last man of his time to transmit Sahih al-Bukhari with an elevated chain; he related it from Abū al-Haytham al-Kushmihani.

Narrated from him were: Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-Samʿānī, his father, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Marwazī, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAlī al-Hamadhānī, Abū al-Fatḥ Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Kushmihani the preacher, and a number of others.

Ibn Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī said: I heard ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad al-Samarqandī say, “No authentic audition (samāʿ) from Abū al-Haytham is established for this man; it was only a case of two identical names. The manuscript was brought to the vizier Niẓām al-Mulk to be read before him; part of it was recited, but the mule threw him, he died, and the reading was never completed.

“I have seen the people of Marw laugh whenever it is claimed that this Abū al-Khayr ibn Abī ʿImrān heard from al-Kushmihani. They indicate that the one who actually heard (1) was someone else.”

Abū Saʿīd al-Samʿānī said: He was a pious shaykh, upright in conduct. He narrated the Sahih and parts of the Jāmiʿ of Abū ʿĪsā through Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Sirāj al-Ṭaḥḥān. He lived long and became the foremost shaykh of his age. Some people questioned the validity of his audition, but that carries no weight; I have examined his hearing in the extant portion of Abū al-Haytham’s original, and my father praised him (2).

The emir Ibn Mākūlā said: I asked Abū al-Khayr, and he told me, “At one time I spent ten years listening to the Sahih.” He added that he attended sessions in 388 AH (3).