138 – Ibn al-Dabbāgh, Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Yūsuf
The imām, ḥāfiẓ, and unrivalled master, Abū al-Walīd Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Yūsuf ibn ʿUmar (1) ibn Firruh (2) al-Lakhmī, al-Undī (3), a Mālikī who resided in Murcia.
He narrated extensively from Abū ʿAlī al-Ṣadafī, whose company he kept, and he auditioned the Muwattaʾ with Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Khawlānī. He also studied under Abū Muḥammad ibn ʿAttāb and a number of others.
He collected hadith and composed works.
Among those who reported from him are: Ibn Bashkuwāl, Abū ʿAbd al-Malik Marwān ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz the vizier, Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Muṭarrif al-Balansī, Aḥmad ibn Salama al-Lūraqī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Hudhayl, and others.
I have seen his Barnamaj (personal catalogue of shaykhs); it shows that he auditioned many large volumes. He also penned a small treatise naming the ḥuffāẓ (hadith memorisers).
Ibn Bashkuwāl (4) said: “He was one of the noblest of our companions and the most knowledgeable among us regarding hadith methodology, the names of transmitters—their eras, the reliable and the weak among them, their ages and their works. He was wholly devoted to recording knowledge, and people consulted him about legal rulings in his town. Then he preached.”