205 – Ibn Khalil, Abū al-Khaṭṭāb Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Sakūnī*
The distinguished stylist, master of rhetoric and epistolary composition, and qāḍī: Abū al-Khaṭṭāb Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Khalil al-Sakūnī, the Andalusian scribe.
He alone in those regions possessed an ijāzah from Abū Ṭāhir al-Salafī.
Abū Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr studied under him continuously and said, “He was a garden of insights, foremost in the literary sciences; I have never met his equal.”
He could deliver the sermon extemporaneously and write without affectation. Much of his discourse was transcribed. Versed in many disciplines, I derived abundant benefit from him. His transmissions carried lofty chains of authority and were reliable, and he was well versed in the biographical evaluation of narrators.
He also received licences from Ibn Zarqūn and al-Suhailī, and he heard ḥadith from Abū al-Ḥakam ibn Ḥajjāj and Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn Miqdām.
He further remarked: “He was among the most generous of men.”
He died (1) in 652 AH.
206 – ʿĪsā ibn Aḥmad ibn Ilyās al-Yūnīnī**
The ascetic, exemplar, and devoted worshipper: Shaykh ʿĪsā ibn Aḥmad ibn Ilyās al-Yūnīnī, a disciple of Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh.