ʿAskar; Sitt al-Wuzarāʾ bint al-Munajjā; and many others besides.

I read, in the handwriting of Ibn al-Majd, the following: “When I departed Baghdad in the year 630 AH, it weighed on me that I might arrive without a shaykh who could transmit Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī….” He then recounted the story of Ibn Rūzbah: that he was dispatched in 626 AH and was given fifty dinars from al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ. When he reached Raʾs ʿAyn they prevailed upon him, so he sat and narrated the Ṣaḥīḥ to them; they enticed him again in Ḥarrān, so he recited it there as well; the same occurred in Aleppo. Later they alarmed him with news of an impending siege of Damascus, so he returned to Baghdad.

He continues: “I went to him after he had tasted profit, but he became over-demanding and laid down conditions. We then spoke with Ibn al-Qaṭīʿī (1), who set the same terms. So I proceeded to Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn al-Zabīdī, though I had little hope, and he said, ‘We shall seek Allah’s guidance.’

“Then he added, ‘Do not inform anyone.’

“His son ʿUmar urged him to set out. The shaykh was in debt for about seventy dinars, so we accompanied him. He was light on expenses, greatly forbearing, an excellent travelling companion, and constant in remembrance of Allah—truly an exemplary companion.”

I say: al-Ashraf, the ruler of Damascus, rejoiced at his arrival, brought him to his court midway through that year’s Ramadan, and listened to the Ṣaḥīḥ from him in just a few days. He then lodged him in the Dār al-Ḥadīth, which had been opened scarcely a month earlier. People flocked in crowds, thronged together, and heard the book. Afterward the people of the mountain districts took him, and they too listened to the Ṣaḥīḥ and the Musnad of al-Shāfiʿī from him. His name became widely known. He was then returned to his homeland; he arrived there in poor health and passed away—may Allah have mercy on him—on the twenty-third of Ṣafar, in the year 631 AH.

223 – al-ʿUlabbī, Abū Yaḥyā Zakariyyā ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥassān*
The shaykh, the eminent transmitter, Abū Yaḥyā Zakariyyā ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥassān ibn ʿAlī ibn