Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Baghdādī, the scribe—
a man who came from a family renowned for transmitting and recording knowledge.

He was born in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir—some said in Jumādā I—of the year 506 AH.

Among those from whom he heard ḥadīth were Abū al-Qāsim ibn Bayān; Abū ʿAlī ibn Nabḥān—while he was still in his fifth year; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī al-Dūrī; Abū Ṭālib ibn Yūsuf; Jaʿfar ibn al-Muḥsin al-Salamāsī; his own grandfather; and a number of others.

Those who narrated from him include Shaykh Muwaffaq al-Dīn al-Maqdisī, Yūsuf ibn Khalīl, al-Jalāl ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan the judge of Dumyāṭ, ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn al-Khiyamī, Muḥammad ibn Nafīs al-Zaʿīmī, Aḥmad ibn Shukr al-Kindī, and several more.

Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Akhdar said, “I heard from him, his father, and his grandfather.”

I state that he passed away on the ninth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal in 589 AH.

He was also related on by Ibn Khalīl—who produced the booklet of Ibn ʿArafah—and he was the father of the foremost musnid of his day, al-Fatḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Salām.

Concerning him the ḥāfiẓ Ibn al-Najjār remarked, “He was a noble, dignified shaykh, of imposing presence, descended from families of leaders and ḥadīth scholars, and he transmitted a great deal.”

I likewise heard Muḥammad ibn al-Nafīs ibn Munjib say, “He was reliable, though he inclined toward Shiʿism.”