126 – Ibn Mardawayh, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad
The shaykh, the imām, the ḥadith scholar, the learned man: Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, son of the great ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn Mardawayh ibn Fūrak ibn Mūsā al-Iṣfahānī.

Born: in 409 AH, as stated by Yaḥyā ibn Manda.

He heard hadiths from Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Wakīl, Abū ʿAlī Ghulām Muḥsin, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Haytham al-Waʿiẓ, Abū Bakr ibn Abī ʿAlī al-Dhakwānī, al-Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm al-Jammāl, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Qulawayh the merchant, Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Thaqafī al-Waʿiẓ, Abū Nuʿaym the ḥāfiẓ, Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Fādhshāh, and many others, yet he never undertook a journey for knowledge.

Al-Silafī says: “We copied a great deal from him, and he was a trustworthy and eminent transmitter. I heard him say, ‘They wrote from me while in the gathering of Abū Nuʿaym the ḥāfiẓ.’”

Among those who narrated from him are al-Silafī, Ismāʿīl ibn Ghānim, a number of others, and his grandson ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Aḥmad.

Abū Bakr had a keen understanding of hadith. I have seen a small booklet of his containing the various chains for the report, “Seeking knowledge is an obligation (1),” a work that attests to his expertise. He did not, however, live long enough to hear directly from his grandfather.

He died in Sūdhrajān, one of the villages of Isfahān, in 498 AH, and he was—