Add Yaʿqūb—and two other men called Yaʿqūb (1) besides him—together with Ibn Sanjar (2), a sure refuge in time of need; namely, Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah (3), Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqī (4), and Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī (5).
Count as well Ṣāliḥ al-Riḍā and his brother from among that company, and likewise al-Dārimī (6), a companion of lofty virtues; then Ṣāliḥ al-Mulaqqab (7) and Ibn ʿAmr—the Damascene (8), gentle and long-suffering.
Include the son of Jarīr (9): when he passed away, his merits outnumbered the grains of sand. Add Ibn Khuzaymah (10) of the Banū Sulaym, followed by Ibn Manda (11), the exemplar for the mountain towns.
And there are multitudes besides, whose qualities elude description and whose states escape every inquiring tongue. They rose through knowledge, while others—so the ignorant supposed—were elevated by nothing but rotting scraps. Yet with all their rank and all they possessed, their households too are the very best of households.
(1) The original manuscript reads: “and the two Ya‘qubs.”
(2) The great hafiz Muhammad ibn Sanjar (d. 258 AH), originally from Jurjan before settling in Egypt.
(3) He died in 262 AH.
(4) He died in 252 AH.
(5) Refers to the well-known historian Ya‘qub ibn Sufyan (d. 277 AH).
(6) Abu Sa‘id ‘Uthman ibn Sa‘id al-Darimi (d. 280 AH).
(7) The manuscript has: “and Salih, nicknamed Jazara.” The verse cannot scan with this wording. “Jazara” is the laqab of Salih ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Umar al-Baghdadi (d. 293 AH); it seems to have been inserted merely for clarification and was probably not in the original text. The author, al-Salafi, intended to say “the one nicknamed Jazara,” as he is famous by that epithet.
(8) We found no Damascene scholar of Salih Jazara’s generation known as Ibn ‘Amr. It is likely that the reference is to the eminent hafiz Ahmad ibn ‘Amr ibn ‘Abd al-Khaliq al-Basri, known as al-Bazzar, compiler of the famous Musnad, who died in 292 AH. Al-Bazzar lived in Greater Syria at the end of his life and passed away in al-Ramla.
(9) That is Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, author of the History and the Tafsir, who died in 310 AH.
(10) The Imam of the Imams, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Khuzayma al-Sulami al-Naysaburi (d. 311 AH).
(11) The Ibn Mandah family—Abdiyun from Isfahan—was a celebrated house of learning that produced numerous scholars; the person meant here by al-Salafi is Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Mandah, who died in 301 AH.