51 – Ibn Khalfun, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad al-Azdi *
The meticulous hadith master and erudite scholar Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn Khalfun al-Azdi, the Andalusian, al-Awnabī (1), a resident of Seville.
Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Abbar (2) said: “He was born in 555 AH and heard hadith from Abū Bakr ibn al-Jadd, Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zarqūn, Abū Bakr al-Nayyār, and several others.”
I say: I do not know of anyone who transmitted from him, the distance being so great; yet Abū Jaʿfar ibn al-Ṭabbāʿ, Ibn Masdī, and—most copiously—Abū Bakr ibn Sitt al-Nās did narrate from him.
He (al-Abbar) said: “He was perceptive in the science of hadith, a memorizer of the narrators, precise. He authored the book Al-Muntaqā fī al-Rijāl in five volumes, the Mufhim fī Shuyūkh al-Bukhārī wa Muslim, and the book ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth.
He also held the office of judge in certain districts and was praised for his judgments.
A number of people studied under him, and he was fully qualified for that.
He died in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, 636 AH.”
Ibn al-Zubayr said: “He dedicated himself wholeheartedly to the collection and transmission of reports, and he devoted himself to …”