he studied under Abu Bakr al-Hīrī, Abū Isḥāq al-Isfarāyinī, and Abū Dharr al-Harawī in Mecca; under Ibn Naẓīf in Egypt; and under Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Simsār in Damascus. For a lengthy period he held dictation sessions, marked by steadfast religion and piety. He was appointed chief judge of Khwarazm, and for Allah’s sake he did not fear the blame of any blamer. He also composed a number of works on fiqh (1).

Malikshāh once dispatched him as an envoy to ask for the caliph’s daughter in marriage. He fulfilled the mission and offered sincere advice, saying, “Do not mix your pure household with the Turkmans” (2).

The people of Khwarazm transmitted traditions from him. He died in 478 AH.

242 – Ibn Khalaf, Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Shīrāzī*

The shaykh, the erudite authority and grammarian, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Khalaf al-Shīrāzī—later of Nishapur—was a man of letters and the foremost transmitter of his day.

He was born in 398 AH.

He began hearing ḥadīth in 404 AH, and thereafter studied under Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim, Ḥamzah al-Muhallabī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf al-Aṣbahānī, Abū Ṭāhir ibn Maḥmish, Abū Bakr ibn Fūrak, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, and many of their contemporaries, transmitting copiously.

Among those who narrated from him were Ibn Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī and Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Samarkandī,