al-Silafī; he kept his company for many years, transmitted copiously from him, devoted himself completely to him, and even had his son Muḥammad audition the ḥadith from him.

He also heard from the judge Abū ʿUbayd Niʿma ibn Ziyādat Allāh al-Ghifārī, who read to him most of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī on the authority of ʿĪsā ibn Abī Dharr al-Harawī and then al-Sarwī (1). His audition of the Ṣaḥīḥ—apart from a small portion at the end—took place in the year 558 AH.

He further received transmission from Badr al-Khudhādhadhī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khalaf Allāh al-Muqriʾ, Abū Muḥammad al-ʿUthmānī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Barrī the grammarian, ʿAlī ibn Hibat Allāh al-Kāmilī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Raḥbī, and many others in the frontier towns, Egypt, and the Two Sanctuaries.

He gathered and compiled ḥadith, authored works, presided over teaching circles, and for a time served as deputy judge in Alexandria. He then taught for a period in his own madrasa there; afterward he moved to Cairo and taught in the madrasa founded by al-Ṣāḥib Ibn Shukr, remaining in that post until his death.

He held a leading rank in the Mālikī school and in ḥadith. He produced carefully edited writings; in the year 686 AH I saw his book “Fasting,” complete with chains of transmission, as well as “The Forty on the Tiers of Ḥuffāẓ.” When I examined the latter, it stirred my own ambition to collect the biographies of the ḥuffāẓ and their circumstances.

He was a man of religion, scrupulous piety, self-restraint, integrity, commendable character, and possessed a strong share in all the sciences.

His pupil, the ḥāfiẓ Abū Muḥammad al-Munḏirī, mentioned him, lavished praise upon him, and declared him reliable, saying (2):

“He traveled to Egypt in the year 574 AH, where he heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī …”