its master copy, and that is the most reprehensible practice in the eyes of the ḥadith scholars.

I say: nowadays they have become extremely lax about this, and the matter has further particulars. (1)

He told me that he was born in 428 AH and that he heard ḥadith from Hibat Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Wārith in 456 AH.

Ibn Ṭāhir and others said: the nisbah “al-Rawwāsī” traces back to the trade of selling heads.

Ibn Mākūlā said: al-Rawwāsī narrated from me and I from him, and I found him intelligent.

As-Samʿānī said: I heard Abū al-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad as-Sarkhasī say, “When ʿUmar ibn Abī al-Ḥasan arrived among us he began dictating, and a number of people attended. He said, ‘I shall write the names of the group in the original register, then question them and record.’ At the second session he took up the pen and wrote all their names from the depths of his memory without asking them. It was said they numbered seventy persons.”

ʿAbd al-Ghāfir ibn Ismāʿīl said: ʿUmar al-Rawwāsī was a well-known shaykh, expert in the lines of transmission. He wrote copiously, arranged the chapters, authored works, and was exceptionally swift in writing. He followed the way of the early generations, supported a family while having little means. When he left Nishapur for Ṭūs, Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī lodged him, honored him, read the Ṣaḥīḥ with him, and then explained it.

Abū al-Fityān al-Rawwāsī said, “I intend to travel to Marw, with Sarakhs on the route; it is said to be the cemetery of scholars, so I do not know what my lot there will be.”

Indeed, he died there in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir of 503 AH, as recorded on the plaque over his grave—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—having lived seventy-five years.