29 – al-Kushmihanī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān
He was the imām and orator, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr Muḥammad ibn Abī Tawbah al-Kushmihanī, originally from Marw, a Shāfiʿī jurist and public exhorter.
He studied under Abū Bakr al-Samʿānī, al-Nuʿmān ibn Abī Ḥarb, ʿAlī ibn Ḥassān al-Manīʿī, Abū Manṣūr al-Kurāʿī, Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Mahānī, and Ismāʿīl ibn al-Bayhaqī.
In Baghdad he received hadith from Abū Ghālib ibn al-Bannāʾ and scholars of his circle; in Nīshāpūr from Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Farāwī and several others; in Kūfa from ʿUmar al-Zaydī; in Mecca from ʿAtīq ibn Aḥmad al-Azdī; and in Hamadhān from Abū Jaʿfar ibn Abī ʿAlī.
He moved to Baghdad in 557 AH (1) with his family, settled there, and, in the presence of the vizier Ibn Hubayra, taught Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. He also narrated in Aleppo before returning to Marw.
Those who transmitted from him include Aḥmad ibn al-Bandanījī, Ibn al-Ḥuṣrī, Abū Muḥammad ibn ʿAlwān, Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUthmān al-Kāshgharī, and others.
His father was a leading figure among the Sufis.