262 – al-Bakharzi, Abū al-Maʿālī Saʿīd ibn al-Muṭahhar ibn Saʿīd ibn ʿAlī
The imam, exemplar, Shaykh of Khurāsān, “Sword of the Religion,” Abū al-Maʿālī Saʿīd ibn al-Muṭahhar ibn Saʿīd ibn ʿAlī al-Qāʿidī, al-Bakharzi, long-time resident of Bukhārā.
He was an eminent ḥadīth scholar—devout, ascetic, God-fearing, an Atharī traditionalist—without peer in his day and famed far and wide; hearts were moved by his presence and souls felt awe before him.
He kept the company of Shaykh Najm al-Dīn al-Khiwaqī (1).
He heard (ḥadīth) from al-Muʾayyad al-Ṭūsī and others; in Baghdad from ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Mawṣilī, Abū al-Futūḥ al-Ḥuṣarī, Ismāʿīl ibn Saʿd Allāh ibn Ḥamdī, and Mushrif al-Khāliṣī; and in Nīshāpūr from Ibrāhīm ibn Sālār al-Khwārazmī.
It is said that he arrived in Baghdad when he was 11 years old and heard from Ibn al-Jawzī, for he had been born on the ninth of Shaʿbān in the year 586 AH.
Ibn al-Fuwatī mentioned him in Muʿjam al-Alqāb, saying (2): “He is a ḥadīth scholar, ḥāfiẓ, ascetic preacher. He was a dignified shaykh, well-versed, God-fearing, and eloquent—his words were like pearls. He narrated from Abū al-Jinnāb al-Khiwaqī and received the khirqa (Sufi cloak) from him (3); his shaykh had received it from Ismāʿīl al-Qaṣrī, from Muḥammad ibn Nākil, from Dāwūd ibn Muḥammad, from Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn Idrīs, from Abū al-Qāsim ibn Ramaḍān, from Abū Yaʿqūb al-Ṭabarī, from Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān, from Abū Yaʿqūb al-Nahrjūrī, from Abū Yaʿqūb…”