—the Iṣfahānī, al-Milanjī (1).
He was born in Ramaḍān of the year 397 AH.
He heard ḥadith from Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Jurjānī, Abū Bakr ibn Mardūyah, Ibn Jūlah (2) al-Abharī, Abū Saʿd Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Mālīnī, Abū Saʿīd Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Naqqāsh, Abū Nuʿaym, and a number of others.
In Baghdad he studied with Abū ʿAlī ibn Shādhān, Abū Bakr al-Birqānī, Abū al-Qāsim ibn Bishrān, Ibn Ṭalḥah al-Munqī (3), Abū al-Qāsim al-Ḥurfī (4), and their peers. He wrote prolifically, collected traditions, and authored works.
Among those who received ḥadith from him was his own teacher, Abū Nuʿaym.
Those who narrated on his authority include Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb—who was older than he—Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad al-Taymī, Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Ghāzī, Hibat Allāh ibn Ṭāwūs the Qurʾān-reciter, Abū Saʿd al-Baghdādī, Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir al-Ṭūsī, Sharaf ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib al-Ḥusaynī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Maghāzilī, Rajāʾ ibn Ḥāmid al-Maʿdānī (5), Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan al-Ṣaydilānī, Masʿūd ibn al-Ḥasan al-Thaqafī, and others.
Al-Samʿānī said: “He was well-versed in ḥadith: he organized the subject-matter into chapters and composed books.”