al-Bardānī (1) said: “He was trustworthy, dignified, and well-off. He wrote prolifically, and he died in Jumada al-Ula, in the year 489 AH.”
80 – al-Zāz, Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (2)
The erudite scholar and senior Shafiʿi authority, Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad ibn Zāz al-Sarkhasī, a Shafiʿi jurist of Marw, commonly known as “al-Zāz.”
He was the proverbial model for mastery of the school’s doctrine; his books became widely known, his pupils were numerous, and people travelled to him from distant regions.
He studied jurisprudence under Qāḍī Ḥusayn.
Among those from whom he heard hadith were the teacher Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Muṭawwiʿī, Abū al-Muẓaffar Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Tamīmī, and many others. He devoted himself to the transmitted reports.
Transmitters who related from him include Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Naysābūrī, Abū Ṭāhir al-Sinjī, ʿUmar ibn Abī Muṭīʿ, and others.
He died before he had the opportunity to narrate widely, so very little was circulated on his authority.