- Al-Barzalī – Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad, known as the shaykh, imām, ḥadīth scholar, ḥāfiẓ, indefatigable traveler and benefactor of the scholarly community; Zakī al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Yaddās (1) al-Barzalī, the Sevillian.
He was born, approximately, in 577 AH. In 602 AH he arrived in Alexandria, where the love of collecting ḥadīth and writing down the reports took hold of him. There he heard from the ḥāfiẓ ʿAlī ibn al-Mufaḍḍal and ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿUthmānī; in Egypt from the judge ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mujallī; and in Mecca from Zāhir ibn Rustum and Yūnus ibn Yaḥyā al-Hāshimī.
In 604 AH he took up residence near the Sacred Mosque, after which he travelled to Damascus and heard there from al-Kindī, al-Khiḍr ibn Kāmil, and others. He returned to Egypt and then set out for Khurāsān and beyond.
In Isfahan he received ḥadīth from ʿAyn al-Shams al-Thaqafiyyah, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Junayd, and Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṭāhir ibn Ghānim; in Nishapur from Manṣūr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Farāwī, al-Muʾayyad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī, and Zaynab al-Shaʿriyyah; in Merv from Abū al-Muẓaffar Ibn al-Samʿānī; in Herat from Abū Rūḥ; in Hamadhān from ʿAbd al-Barr ibn Abī al-ʿAlāʾ; and in Baghdad from Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Akhaḍar.