its author (1), who used to remark, “The Shihāb has turned me into a shihāb (a blazing meteor).”

Abū ʿAlī al-Ṣadafī said, “Al-Ḥumaydī would direct me to the different shaykhs. He lived on very little—detached from worldly matters—and his maintenance was provided by the son of the Chief of Chiefs. Later certain incidents occurred between us that obliged me to part company with him.

Abū Bakr ibn al-Khāḍibah related to me that he never heard al-Ḥumaydī speak of worldly affairs at all.

Muḥammad ibn Ṭarkhān said, ‘I heard al-Ḥumaydī say:
Three books in the science of hadith must be given special care: first, Kitāb al-ʿIlal, and the best work in that field is the book of al-Dāraqutnī.’

I say: ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī—the foremost master of the discipline—compiled Kitāb al-ʿIlal in several separate volumes. Abū Bakr al-Khallāl gathered whatever had reached him of the hidden defects of the reports on which Imām Aḥmad had commented; this yielded three volumes rich in numerous benefits. Ibn Abī Ḥātim likewise authored a large volume on ʿIlal (2).

He continued, ‘The second is the book on al-muʾtalif waʾl-mukhtalif; the finest treatment of it is al-Ikmāl (3) by the amir Ibn Mākūlā, together with the book Wafayāt al-Mashāyikh. In that field there is no book—’