and a dignified gravity; he was endowed with piety, uprightness, chastity, and contentment.

Al-Ḍiyāʾ was asked about him and said, “A ḥāfiẓ, devout, trustworthy— a man of honour and generosity.”

Al-Barzalī declared, “Reliable, religious, and beneficial.”

I add: Those who studied under him include Sayf Aḥmad ibn al-Majd, al-Mundhirī, ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Manṣūr al-Atharī, Sharaf Ḥusayn al-Irbilī, Abū al-Fatḥ ibn ʿUmar al-Ḥājib and his brother ʿUthmān, ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥāfiẓ, his son Abū Mūsā Layth, and Shaykh ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Fārūthī.

He also issued ijāzahs to a number of our teachers, among them Fāṭimah bint Sulaymān.

He compiled the book al-Taqyīd fī Maʿrifat Ruwāt al-Kutub (1) wa-al-Masānīd (2).

He further produced a supplement (Mustadrak) to Ibn Mākūlā’s al-Ikmāl (3), which attests to the breadth of his knowledge. Therein, under the entry for al-Mubārakī, he writes: “He is Sulaymān ibn Muḥammad; he heard from Abū Shihāb al-Ḥannāṭ.” He continues: “Al-Amīr said he was Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd, and that is an error. I suspect he derived it from al-Khaṭīb’s Tārīkh, for al-Khaṭīb likewise mentioned him there in error, although he identified him correctly in the biography of Abū Shihāb ʿAbd Rabbih.”

Al-Ḥākim stated in al-Kunā: “Abū Dāwūd al-Mubārak is Sulaymān ibn Muḥammad—so he was named for us by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Isfarāyinī—he heard from Abū Shihāb.” Ibn Nuqtah then remarked: “A group narrated from al-Mubārak and named his father Muḥammad: among them Khalaf al-Bazzār—his contemporary—Mūsā ibn Hārūn, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Maʿmarī, Isḥāq ibn Mūsā, Abū Yaʿlā, and Aḥmad al-Ṣūfī.”