and five hundred (562 AH), at Marw; he was fifty-six years old.
In that same year there also passed away: the musnid of his age, ʿAbd al-Jalīl ibn Abī Saʿd al-Muʿaddal of Herat (1); the hadith master of Transoxiana, Imām Abū Shujāʿ ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bisṭāmī, later al-Balkhī (2); the musnid of Baghdad, Abū al-Maʿālī Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Hayyān al-Laḥḥās (3); the musnid of Iṣfahān—indeed, of the whole world—the chief Masʿūd ibn al-Ḥasan, son of the Chief Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Thaqafī, who had surpassed one hundred years of age (4); the musnid of Iraq, Abū al-Qāsim Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Hilāl al-Daqqāq, a centenarian (5); the scholar of Sijistān, Abū ʿArūbah ʿAbd al-Hādī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Maʾmūn (6); the scholar of Damascus, Jamāl al-Aʾimmah ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Māsih (7); the preacher of Damascus, Abū al-Barakāt al-Khaḍir ibn Shibl ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥārithī (8); and others besides them.

al-Samʿānī said: I was copying manuscripts in the congregational mosque of Burūjird when a shaykh of ragged appearance entered and asked, “What are you writing?” Reluctant to reply, I said, “Hadith.”
He said, “So you are a seeker of hadith?”
I answered, “Indeed.”
He asked, “Where are you from?”
I replied, “From Marw.”
He said, “From which of its people does al-Bukhārī transmit?”
I said, “From ʿAbdān, Ṣadaqah ibn al-Faḍl, and ʿAlī ibn Ḥujr.”
He asked, “What is ʿAbdān’s full name?”
I replied, “ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān.”
He said, “Then why was he called ʿAbdān?”
I hesitated; he smiled, and I looked at him with fresh eyes and said: