83 – Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid al-Bajalī al-Aḥmasī* (ʿ)
A ḥāfiẓ and eminent imām, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Bajalī, the Aḥmasī client, from Kūfa.
His father’s name was Hurmuz; some said it was Saʿd, while others said Kathīr. His brothers included Ashʿab, Khālid, and Saʿīd.
He was Kūfa’s leading ḥadith scholar in his time alongside al-Aʿmash—indeed, his chains are higher than al-Aʿmash’s.
He narrated from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Awfā, Abū Juḥayfah Wahb al-Suʿāʾī, ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth al-Makhzūmī, and Abū Kāhil Qays ibn ʿĀʾidh, all of whom were Companions; accordingly, he is counted among the younger Followers.
He also transmitted from Qays ibn Abī Ḥazm, Zayd ibn Wahb, Zir ibn Ḥubaysh, al-Ḥārith ibn Shubayl, Ḥakīm ibn Jābir, Ṭāriq ibn Shihāb, al-Shaʿbī, and Muḥammad ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ.
Those who took from him include Abū Isḥāq, al-Zubayr ibn ʿAdī, Salamah ibn Kuhayl, and many others.
He also narrated from his own father and from his brothers Khālid and Saʿīd, and he was truly one of the storehouses of knowledge.
Among those who reported on his authority were al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah, Mālik ibn Mighwal, Shuʿbah, Sufyān, Sharīk, Jarīr, ʿAbbād ibn al-ʿAwwām, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr, ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus, al-Faḍl ibn Mūsā, Abū Muʿāwiyah, Wakīʿ, Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, Yazīd ibn Hārūn, Ibn Idrīs, Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth, Muḥammad ibn Bishr al-ʿAbdī, Muḥammad ibn Khālid al-Wahbī, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā, and Yaḥyā ibn Hāshim al-Simsār, despite the latter’s weakness.