254 – Abū al-Majd Zāhir ibn Abī Ṭāhir Aḥmad ibn Ḥāmid al-Thaqafī
The venerable, upright shaykh, a reliable hadith transmitter who lived to an advanced age: Abū al-Majd Zāhir ibn Abī Ṭāhir Aḥmad ibn Ḥāmid ibn Aḥmad ibn Maḥmūd al-Thaqafī, originally from Isfahān.
He was born in Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 521 AH.
He attended and heard hadith directly from Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Thaqafī. He also received narration from Ibn Abī Dharr (1) — the associate of Abū Ṭāhir ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm — as well as from Saʿīd ibn Abī al-Rajāʾ al-Ṣayrafī, Zāhir al-Shahhāmī, al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Khallāl, and the hadith master Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad al-Taymī. He transmitted a great deal.
Among those who narrated from him were Ibn Nuqṭa, Ibn Khalīl, al-Ḍiyāʾ, al-Taqī ibn al-ʿIzz, al-Jamāl Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar, and several others.
He in turn granted ijāza to al-Kamāl ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, to the Shaykh (2), to Ibn Shaybān, Ibn al-Darajī, al-Fakhr ʿAlī, al-Taqī ibn al-Wāsiṭī, and others.
He also possessed an authorization from Fāṭima al-Jawzdāniyya.
Ibn Nuqṭa said: “He was a righteous shaykh who lost his sight in old age; he was patient with students and generous toward them.”
I add: He heard the Musnad of Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī through the route of Ibn al-Muqri.