and he began committing ḥadīth to writing at the age of eleven.
Abū Naṣr al-Yūnārtī said, “He is trustworthy, firmly reliable, the possessor of many original manuscripts. He loves knowledge and its people. They have described him as knowledgeable, with an ample range of transmissions, and he was devout and righteous—may Allah have mercy on him.” (1)
He died in mid-Dhū al-Qaʿda, in the year 500 AH, at the age of ninety.
133 – Abū al-Fath al-Ḥaddād Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd
The shaykh, scholar, Qur’an reciter, and musnid of his day—Abū al-Fath Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Iṣbahānī, known as al-Ḥaddād (“the Blacksmith”), a merchant and the maternal grandson of the ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Mandah.
He alone held an ijāza from Ismāʿīl ibn Yanal (2) al-Maḥbūbī, the associate of Ibn Maḥbūb. (3)
He also heard from: Abū Saʿīd Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Naqqāsh; ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Kuwaih; Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Yazdād, the servant of Muḥsin; Abū Sahl ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad al-Faqīh; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Dashtī; and Abū Saʿīd al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad,
(1) Ibn al-Jawzi states in al-Muntazam, 9/154: “He was prolific in narration, pious, trustworthy, truthful and alert; his chains of transmission were sound, and he was dignified and devout, of good appearance and frequent in prayer. He heard a vast amount, copied texts in his own hand, and God enabled him to benefit from what he heard until his reports became widespread. Our teachers transmitted from him, and all of them praised him and bore witness to his truthfulness and reliability—among them ʿAbd al-Wahhab, Ibn Nasir and others. Al-Muʾtaman, however, accused him of lying, a charge in which no one concurred.”
(*) Al-Muntazam, 9/151; al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, 10/439; Duwal al-Islam, 2/29; al-Ibar, 3/355; Maʿrifat al-Qurraʾ, 368-369; al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat, 7/323; Ghaya al-Nihaya, 1/101-102; al-Nujum al-Zahira, 5/195; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 3/410.
(2) The autograph reads “Banan,” which is a scribal corruption; the correct form is supplied from the author’s Mushtabih, 2/672.
(3) Refers to Abu al-ʿAbbas Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Mahbub al-Mahbubi, the merchant from Marw who died in 340 AH and was the transmitter of al-Tirmidhi’s Jamiʿ; his biography appeared in vol. 15, no. 315.