ʿAbd Allāh al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl ibn Aḥmad ibn Aḥmad ibn Maḥmūd al-Thaqafī, the Isfahāni, compiler of al-Arbaʿīn and al-Fawāʾid al-ʿAshara (1).
He was born in 397 AH. His first audition took place in 403 AH, and while still a youth his father dispatched him to Khurāsān, Iraq, and the Ḥijāz, where he met the senior authorities.
He heard ḥadith from Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmish, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, Abū Zakariyyā al-Muzakkī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Bālūyah, ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān, the judge Abū Bakr al-Ḥīrī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Ṣayrafī, Abū ʿAmr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Razjāhī (2), ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Khalaf, Abū Ḥāzim al-ʿAbdawī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥabīb, a group in Nīshāpūr, Abū al-Faraj ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad al-Burjī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Jūla, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Jurjānī, Abū Bakr ibn Mardawayh, ʿAlī ibn Māshādhah al-Farāḍī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Azdī, several scholars in his own city, Hilāl ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥaffār, Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Bishrān, Ibn Yaʿqūb al-Iyādī, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl al-Qaṭṭān, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ghaḍāʾirī, a number of scholars in Baghdad, and Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Naẓīf al-Miṣrī at Mecca.
He transmitted extensively, was without peer in his generation, and enjoyed a position of great respect.