Those who narrated from him include Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥayyān al-Awsī and a number of others.

Abū Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr mentions him and says: “He is an accomplished, prolific, dependable, and precise muhaddith; an eloquent (1) scribe; a man of letters of abundant learning and a ḥāfiẓ.

He transmitted copiously from his father … and named many other teachers … until he said: ‘He devoted great energy to the discipline of transmission; he compiled his Muʿjam and the book Tuḥfat al-Qādim, and he produced a supplement to Ibn Bashkuwāl’s Ṣila—a fact I only discovered some time after I had annotated this book, namely Ibn al-Zubayr’s Ṣila.’ ”

He added: “He was versatile and foremost in hadith and literature, a committed Sunnī, well-mannered and virtuous. He was executed with deliberate cruelty, unjustly and tyrannically, toward the end of the sixties of the 600s AH.”

I say: He had a discerning eye for the later transmitters, was a historian whose biographical entries were delightful, whose language was eloquent, whose dignity was great and whose appearance was refined. He was among the most eloquent of writers. He produced numerous works, among them the Takmilat al-Ṣila in three volumes, from which I have selected many treasures.

He left al-Andalus when it fell to the Christians and lived for a time in Tunis. I was informed that some of his enemies stirred up trouble against him before the ruler of Tunis, claiming that he had compiled a History in which he spoke about certain notable figures, saying, “He is a meddler who criticizes the eminent.” He was therefore arrested, and when he sensed that his life was in danger he said to his servant, “Take the mule—it is yours—and go wherever you wish.”

When he was brought in, the king ordered his execution. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of every evil-doer. This, in substance, is what Imām Abū al-Walīd Ibn al-Ḥājj, may Allah have mercy on him, related to me concerning his death.

Among his writings is al-Arbaʿūn, in which he gathers 40 reports transmitted from 40 shaykhs, each drawn from 40 different works, for 40