He composed the work Al-Imlāʾ on the doctrine of the school, and it became widely circulated throughout the provinces. He was one of the leading imams of the religion, profoundly devout, exceedingly scrupulous about his provisions—so much so that he gave up eating rice because only the soldiers cultivated it (1)—and he had no peer when it came to issuing fatwas.

He died in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir of the year 494 AH, at a little over sixty years of age.

81 – Al-Qūmisānī, Abū al-Faraj Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān

The ḥāfiẓ, the imam, the distinguished scholar, the Hadith master of Hamadhān: Abū al-Faraj Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān al-Qūmisānī—later called al-Hamadhānī—the devoted worshipper.

He narrated from: his grandfather ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad ibn Mazdin, his father Abū al-Faḍl, ʿUmar ibn Jabārah (2), Ibn Ghazw al-Nahāwandī, and their peers.

While in Baghdad he also heard from Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Muhtadī bi-Allāh and others of that rank.

Shirawayh said: “He is the shaykh of our town, renowned for righteousness. He was trustworthy, a ḥāfiẓ, well-versed in the assessment of narrators and texts, unique in his age for preserving the laws and hallmarks of Islam. I personally washed his body in Muḥarram of the year 497 AH, and he lived fifty-eight years.”

Al-Silafī included him among those who granted him a transmission licence, remarking that he was famous for his complete mastery of Hadith.