and four hundred (478 AH), and he died in forty-eight (1) and five hundred, that is, 548 AH.
145 – Al-Isfarāyīnī, Abū al-Maʿālī al-Faḍl ibn Sahl ibn Bishr
The shaykh, Abū al-Maʿālī al-Faḍl ibn Sahl ibn Bishr al-Isfarāyīnī, the Damascene, nicknamed al-Athīr (2) al-Halabī.
He was born in Egypt, raised in Jerusalem, travelled on business to Khurasan and other regions, and spent a period preaching in Aleppo.
He heard hadith from his father and from Abū al-Qāsim ibn Abī al-ʿAlāʾ, held a licence (ijāza) from Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb, and possessed from his father a copy of al-Sunan al-Kabīr (3) by al-Nasāʾī.
Al-Samʿānī said, “He is suspected of lying in his speech, yet what he actually heard is sound.” (4)
I say: Those who narrated from him include al-Samʿānī and Ibn ʿAsākir (5); the last to transmit from him by ijāza was Ibn al-Muqayyir.
He died in Baghdad, in the month of Rajab, in the year forty-eight and five hundred (548 AH).