He had a number of students listen to several ajzaʾ (single-tract collections) from Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Shāfiʿī, for which he alone possessed an exceptionally elevated chain.

Al-Samʿānī said: “He was a shaykh, trustworthy, righteous, and humble; among the Prophet’s noble descendants I have seen none like him. He came to us in Isfahān because of a debt he had incurred (1), carrying five volumes with him, and I heard them from him. He began hearing hadith in middle age and copied a great deal. He visited Isfahān again on his way back from Kirmān in 547 AH.”

Ibn al-Najjār said: “He was truthful, ascetic, and devoted to worship; I have read material penned in his own hand.”

He himself said, “I heard hadith from Abū ʿAlī al-Shāfiʿī when I was seven years old.”

I say: Those who narrated from him include Ibn ʿAsākir, al-Samʿānī, the judge Asʿad ibn Munajjā, Thābit ibn Musharraf, ʿAbd al-Salām al-Dāhirī, Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qaṭīʿī, Abū Muḥammad ibn ʿAlwān al-Ḥalabī, and others.

The only person who received an ijāzah (written licence to transmit) from him was Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Muqayyir.

He died in Shaʿbān, 554 AH.

He was the grandfather of the hadith scholar and ḥāfiẓ Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAbbāsī.

Ibn al-Najjār also states that he heard hadith from Abū ʿAlī al-Shāfiʿī, ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-ʿAbbāsī the Qurʾān-reciter, ʿĪsā ibn Abī Dharr, and ʿAbd al-Sātir ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ziyādī; and, in Baghdad, from Ibn al-Ḥuṣayn and Abū Ghālib ibn al-Bannāʾ.

He copied many works in his own hand, and Ibn Nāṣir wrote hadith from him.

Those who transmitted to us on his authority were Ibn Sukayna, Ibn al-Akhḍar, ʿAbd al-Razzāq, al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥamdūn, and Turk ibn Muḥammad the scribe.

I heard most of our teachers praise him, describing him as ascetic, devout, scrupulous, and upright.