rests upon your neck: whenever you come across the name of a Companion that I have not yet recorded, make sure to enter it in my book—that is, al-Istiʿāb.

Ibn Bashkuwāl (1) said: “I heard Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Mughīth say:

‘Of all the people I have met, Abū ʿAlī al-Jayyānī was the most complete in his knowledge of ḥadīth, in his grasp of their transmission paths, and in his memorization of their narrators. He toiled over works of lexicography, transmitted large quantities of poetry, and—by virtue of the vastness of his transmission—assembled material that none of our contemporaries equalled. He also verified manuscripts in a way unmatched by the other ḥuffāẓ; hence his books carry resounding authority. He compiled a work on the transmitters of the two Ṣaḥīḥs which he entitled Taqyīd al-Muhmal wa-Tamyīz al-Mushkil. It is a fine and useful book, widely received from him by the people.’

Ibn Bashkuwāl further remarks: ‘We heard it read from him through the judge Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥajjāj…’ He remained house-bound for a time because of a chronic ailment that overtook him.

I add: Others who also narrated from him include Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥakam al-Bāhilī; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Jayyānī, known as al-Baghdādī; the judge Abū ʿAlī ibn Sukkara; Abū al-ʿAlāʾ Zahr ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Iyādī; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Simāk al-Gharnāṭī; the ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Laylā; Yūsuf ibn Yabqā (2) the grammarian; and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khalīl al-Qaysī, the musnid of Marrakesh, who transmitted from him the text of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim in the year 570 AH.

The master ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAlī passed away on the night preceding Friday, 12 Shaʿbān 498 AH.