and Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad al-Sarrāj—indeed, the chance to transmit is a provision allotted in due measure.

He also compiled for himself an “Index” (1).

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Abbār (2) said: “His corpus of transmission was immense; he devoted himself to it with great care and knew its various pathways. He was a definitive authority, ahead of the scholars of his day, a ḥāfiẓ, abundantly learned, an akhbārī and historian who chronicled the affairs of al-Andalus. He heard both elevated and ordinary chains, and from his teachers he transmitted more than four hundred works, large and small (3). People travelled to him and received knowledge from him; a number of them have related to us from him. They described him as upright in private conduct, pure of heart, truly humble, sincerely patient with students, and long-suffering. He authored fifty works in the diverse branches of learning (4).”

In Seville he held the judgeship of one of its districts on behalf of Ibn al-ʿArabī, drawing up legal contracts. Afterwards he confined himself to public recitation and the transmission of knowledge—his chosen craft. Those who narrated from him are beyond counting, among them:
Abū Bakr ibn Khayr, Abū al-Qāsim al-Qanṭarī, Abū Bakr ibn Samajūn, and Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk, all of whom died before him.

I say (5): Among those who also narrated from him are Abū al-Qāsim Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Mālaqī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Aṣlaʿ, Abū al-Qāsim Aḥmad ibn Yazīd ibn Baqī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAyyāsh al-Mursī, Aḥmad ibn Abī Ḥijja al-Qaysī, Thābit ibn Muḥammad al-Kalāʿī, and Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Salṭān,