al-Naqqūr, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Bājasrāʾī, and a number of others in Baghdad; and the ḥadith master Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī (1), from whom he transcribed nearly one thousand fascicles.

In Damascus he studied with Abū ’l-Makārim ibn Hilāl, Salmān ibn ʿAlī al-Raḥabī, Abū ’l-Maʿālī ibn Ṣābir, and several others.

In Egypt: Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Raḥabī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Barrī, and a group besides them.

In Isfahān: the ḥadith master Abū Mūsā al-Madīnī, Abū ’l-Wafāʾ Maḥmūd ibn Ḥamkā, Abū ’l-Fatḥ al-Khiraqī, Ibn Yanāl the Turk (2), Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Ṣāʾigh, and Ḥabīb ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṣūfī.

In Mosul: Abū ’l-Faḍl al-Ṭūsī and others.

He never stopped seeking knowledge, listening to ḥadith, writing, staying up at night in study, striving tirelessly, commanding what is right, forbidding what is wrong, fearing Allah, worshipping, fasting, praying in the small hours, and spreading learning—until the day he died.

He journeyed to Baghdad twice and to Egypt twice. He and his cousin Shaykh al-Muwaffaq travelled to Baghdad at the beginning of 561 AH (3). They would go out together, each accompanying the other to his lesson and ḥadith sessions. They were two young men whose beards had only just appeared (4), and people had tried to frighten them about the folk of Baghdad. The ḥāfiẓ inclined toward ḥadith, whereas al-Muwaffaq longed for jurisprudence, so the ḥāfiẓ studied fiqh and al-Muwaffaq, alongside him, heard a great many narrations. When discerning people saw their modesty and their avoidance of idle socializing, they loved them, treated them well, and helped them amass abundant knowledge. They remained in Baghdad for about four years, lodging at first with Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir, who was kind to them, but died fifty nights after their arrival. Thereafter they occupied themselves with the study of fiqh, serving as deputies for Ibn al-Munī.

The ḥāfiẓ travelled to al-Silafī (5) in 566 AH, remained for a time, and then set out again to al-Silafī in the year—