Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī and asked him about the bayʿa (oath of allegiance): how had it taken place? He recounted to us all that had happened, then looked at me—I was at the time only beginning to show the first traces of a beard—and said, “He is the one who resembles him the most.”

Al-Muqtadī and I were born in the same year, though I am four months younger than he. The first hadith I heard from the jurist Naṣr was in 460 AH. I travelled to Baghdad in 467 AH, then returned, and entered iḥrām in Jerusalem for the pilgrimage to Mecca.

I (the author) say: Ibn Tāhir wrote hadith from Ibn Hazarmard al-Ṣarīfīnī, Bība al-Harthamiyya, and others of that generation; then from the companions of Hilāl al-Ḥaffār; after that from the pupils of Abū Nuʿaym; until he finally took traditions from the circle of al-Jawharī—indeed, he even learned from al-Jawharī’s own student, Abū Tāhir al-Salafī. His son, Abū Zurʿa al-Maqdisī, in turn heard hadith from Abū Manṣūr al-Maqūmī, ʿAbdūs ibn ʿAbd Allāh, al-Dūnī, and many others. Abū Zurʿa lived a long life, transmitted abundantly, and his reputation spread far and wide.

I was informed by Abū Jaʿfar al-Tarsūsī, on the authority of Ibn Tāhir, who said:

“If a transmitter from any sect wished to relate a single hadith with a chain that reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in a manner acceptable to everyone in matters of creed, he would not succeed; the superfluous links would inevitably drop out. Hence their reliance in matters of reliability was on the accuracy of the audition, the trustworthiness of the person from whom one narrates, and that he be intelligent and discerning.”

I (the author) add: The decisive factor is the truthfulness of the Muslim narrator. Should he be guilty of innovation, one may narrate from him, yet it is better to avoid doing so. One should certainly not take hadith from someone publicly known for a major sin—and Allah knows best.

Aḥmad ibn Salāmah informed us in his book, through Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Tarsūsī, from Muḥammad ibn Tāhir: al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān in Mecca narrated to us