309 – al-Ṭabasī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Jaʿfar *
The shaykh, the Imām, the gnostic, the eminent ḥadīth scholar, Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Jaʿfar al-Ṭabasī, shaykh of the Ṣūfīs.
He heard ḥadīth from al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim, Abū Ṭāhir ibn Maḥmish, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf ibn Bamuwiyah, al-Sulamī, Abū Bakr al-Hīrī, and others of similar standing.
Those who transmitted from him include: al-Junayd ibn Muḥammad al-Qāyinī (1), Wajīh al-Shaḥḥāmī, Abū al-Asʿad ibn al-Qushayrī, and ʿAbd al-Ghāfir ibn Ismāʿīl, who said, “A trustworthy shaykh, devout, a Ṣūfī ascetic. He wrote extensively, collected many useful works, and authored the book Bustān al-ʿĀrifīn.”
He came to us from Ṭabas and dictated for several days at the Niẓāmiyya, after which he returned to his hometown, where he died—in Ramadan of the year 482 AH, may Allah have mercy on him.
I say: he was in his nineties.
(*) Al-Ansab, vol. 8, p. 209; Al-Lubab, vol. 2, p. 274; Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, vol. 3, p. 1195; Al-Ibr, vol. 3, p. 301; Al-Wafi, vol. 2, p. 88; Kashf al-Zunun, p. 1024; Shadharāt al-Dhahab, vol. 3, p. 367; Idah al-Maknun, vol. 1, p. 181; Hadiyyat al-Arifin, vol. 2, p. 75.
Al-Tabasi: Al-Samani explains that the nisbah is vocalised with an initial ta, followed by a single-dotted ba, and a sin; it refers to Tabas, a desert town from which every possible route requires crossing open wilderness. It lies between Nishapur, Isfahan, and Kerman, and was conquered during the caliphate of Umar (may Allah be pleased with him).
(1) Al-Qaʾini—with qaf, ya below the line, and nun—is a nisbah to Qaʾin, a town close to Tabas. See Al-Ansab, vol. 10, p. 37, which contains a biographical notice on Junaid ibn Muhammad al-Qaʾini. In the original manuscript the name was misread as “al-Fatani,” with fa and a ta above the line.