al-Samʿānī said: “Reliable, a ḥāfiẓ, devout, and possessed of a vast corpus of narration. He wrote abundantly and collected books; among all my teachers I never saw anyone who journeyed more in pursuit of learning. I have transmitted a great deal from him. A number of our companions used to give him precedence over Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad al-Taymī in precision and expertise, although he did not quite reach that level, but his chains of transmission were higher than Ismāʿīl’s. He died on the third of Ramaḍān in the year 532 AH. I was present at his funeral, and the prayer was led by Ismāʿīl the ḥāfiẓ.” (1)
5 – Zāhir ibn Ṭāhir ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Naysābūrī, the son of Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad ibn Marzubān—shaykh, scholar, instructive muḥaddith, long-lived, the leading musnid of Khurasan; Abū al-Qāsim, son of the imām Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Naysābūrī; al-Shaḥḥāmī, al-Mustamlī, al-Shurūṭī, the witness.
Born: in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, 446 AH.
His father (2) took special care of him, so he had him attend auditions from the age of five onward and secured authorisations for him.
Among those who granted him authorisation were: Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Ghafir al-Fārisī (3) and Abū Ḥafṣ ibn