364 – al-Khallāl, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn al-Ḥusayn

The shaykh, the Imām, a truthful authority, the chief transmitter of Isfahān, master of Arabic, the last remnant of the early generations: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Iṣfahānī, known as al-Khallāl, al-Atharī, the man of letters.

Born in Ṣafar, 443 AH.

He received hadith from Aḥmad ibn Maḥmūd al-Thaqafī; Ibrāhīm ibn Manṣūr, the grandson of Baḥruwayh; ʿAbd al-Razzaq ibn Shammah; Abū al-Faḍl ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad al-Rāzī; Saʿīd ibn Abī Saʿīd al-ʿAyyār; Aḥmad ibn al-Faḍl al-Bāṭirqānī; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Manda and his two brothers, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb and ʿUbayd Allāh; together with many others.

In his middle years he travelled to Baghdad, where he heard hadith from Abū al-Qāsim ibn Bayān and a number of others.

Those who transmitted from him include al-Silafī, al-Samʿānī, Ibn ʿAsākir (1), al-Madīnī, Maʿmar, his own sons, Abū al-Majd Zāhir ibn Aḥmad, Abū Najīḥ Faḍl Allāh ibn ʿUthmān, al-Muʾayyad ibn al-Ikhwah, Maḥmūd ibn Aḥmad al-Muḍarī, Taqiyyah bint Āmūsān, and many others besides.

Al-Samʿānī said: “I met him after he had grown old and lost his sight. He was pleasant in company and conversation, ever smiling, and possessed an extensive memorized corpus. Ibn Nāṣir recited Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī to him in Baghdad. He was dignified yet content, refusing to accept anything from anyone despite his poverty,”