and al-Faḍl ibn al-Muḥibb; and several authorities in Nīshāpūr; and Abū Manṣūr ibn Shakruwayh and his cohort in Iṣfahān.

He devoted himself to ḥadīth, copied a great deal, and combined understanding and insight with exactitude, careful verification, piety, and broad literary culture. He would read on behalf of Niẓām al-Mulk before the shaykhs and would benefit him thereby.

For his own use he compiled al-Muʿjam.

Birth: 444 AH.

Al-Silafī transmitted from him and said: “He was outstanding, learned, trustworthy, eloquent, and master of Arabic; whenever he read, he parsed the text and cited rare usages.”

I say: He died in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir of the year 516 AH. His father was among the senior pupils of Abū ʿAlī al-Ahwāzī in Qur’anic recitation, and his brother Ismāʿīl ibn al-Samarqandī will be mentioned later.

Ibn al-Najjār said: “Abū Muḥammad wrote a fine hand and collated accurately; he was renowned for his memorization and reliability.”

Those who narrated from him include: his brother; his daughter Kamāl (1); Ibn Nāṣir; Hibat Allāh ibn Mukarram; and our two shaykhs Dhākir ibn Kāmil and Yaḥyā ibn Bawsh.

ʿAbd al-Ghāfir said in al-Siyāq: “Abū Muḥammad al-Samarqandī was a young man,”