Ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Qanṭarī; and Abū Ghānim al-Karāʿī.

At Nīshāpūr he heard from: Abū Ḥafṣ ibn Masrūr and ʿAbd al-Ghāfir al-Fārisī; he also visited Hamadhān and Iṣfahān.

He later entered Iraq, where he heard from ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn al-Maʾmūn and others of his rank.

Those who narrated from him include Abū l-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ṭuyūrī, Hibat Allāh ibn al-Mujallī, Abū Ghālib ibn al-Bannāʾ, and others.

Al-Muʾtaman al-Sājī said: “He was well-versed and showed intense concern for the Ṣaḥīḥ.” (1)

Shujāʿ said: “He memorised and understood; he possessed some knowledge of hadith science, and his transmissions were generally close to acceptability.” (2)

Khamees al-Ḥawzī (3) related that Abū Muslim said, “I wrote—and ten camel-loads were written for me.” Ibn al-Khāṭibah (4) also praised him.

Abū Zakariyyā ibn Mandah said: “He is one of those who claim exceptional memorisation, yet he practises tadlīs and shows partisanship toward the people of innovation. He is cross-eyed, greedy, and whenever a wind rises he rises with it. He compiled Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥayn.” (5)

I say: The censures levelled by the Mandah family against their adversaries carry no weight, just as we pay no attention to the blame those adversaries heap upon them. Abū Muslim, in and of himself, is reliable.

Aḥmad ibn Salāmah stated in the authorisation he granted me that Khalīl ibn Badr heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd