Al-Samʿānī (1) said: “He was descended from a line of ḥadīth scholars, upright in conduct, generous to strangers, of modest means yet content. He kept company with my father for the whole period of his stay in Isfahān and, through his recitation, received a large body of traditions. He possessed complete mastery of ḥadīth and was among the foremost disciples of our shaykh, the ḥāfiẓ Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad (2). I attended his dictation sessions and wrote from him. I heard Abū al-Qāsim the ḥāfiẓ in Damascus praise him warmly, magnify his standing, and describe him as distinguished for his memorization and precision.

Al-Samʿānī continued: When I arrived in Isfahān, he would not leave his house except for some pressing need. His shaykh, Ismāʿīl the ḥāfiẓ, had severed ties with him and forbidden him to attend his gatherings over a dispute concerning the nuzūl (divine descent). Kūtāh used to say, “The descent is in His very Essence,” a formulation Ismāʿīl rejected, ordering him to retract it, but he did not (3).

I add: He later travelled to Naysābūr and heard narrations from ʿAbd al-Ghaffār al-Shīrawī (4).

Among those who transmitted from him were Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir, Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad al-Shīrāzī, and a number of others, while Karīma al-Dimashqiyya took transmission from him by written authorization.

Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī said: ʿAbd al-Khāliq al-Shaḥḥāmī narrated to us; Ṣāʿid ibn Sayyār the ḥāfiẓ dictated to us; ʿAbd al-Jalīl ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid, in Medina, narrated to us; Rūḥ ibn Muḥammad informed us; Abū al-Ḥasan al-Kharjānī (5) informed us—