He trained the people of the frontier, taught them the sunnah, commanded and forbade as needed; and if an innovator set foot in the border-town, he expelled him. He transmitted a great many hadiths and possessed sound legal understanding.

One time he admonished a certain ruler and prohibited him from wrongdoing, whereupon the ruler had him flogged 200 lashes. Al-Awzaʿi was enraged on his behalf and openly protested the incident.

Sufyan ibn ʿUyaynah said, “He was an imam.”

Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Asbahani al-Bannaʾ related: “Al-Awzaʿi once narrated a hadith and said, ‘The completely truthful, Abū Isḥaq al-Fazari, told it to me.’ ”

Abū Ṣaliḥ al-Farraʾ said: “I met al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, who offered me condolences for the death of Abū Isḥaq and remarked, ‘I sometimes long for Maṣṣīṣah; it is not the merit of standing guard there that draws me, but the chance to see Abū Isḥaq—may Allah have mercy on him.’ ”

I say: The last person to transmit from him who lived on after his death was ʿAli ibn Bakkār al-Maṣṣīṣī al-Ṣaghir; he survived until roughly 260 AH.

It has been claimed that Abū Isḥaq narrated a hadith from Abū Ṭuwālah ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, but the correct view is that Zāʾidah stands between them—Allah knows best.

Abū Dāwūd said: “He died in the year five (i.e., 185 AH).”

Al-Bukhari said: “In the year 186 AH.”

As for Muhammad ibn Saʿd, he erred and said: “He died in the year 188 AH.”

I say: He was in his eighties, or had just passed that.

Abū Mushir recounted: “When Abū Isḥaq al-Fazari arrived in Damascus, the people gathered to hear him. He said, ‘Go out to the crowd and announce: Whoever subscribes to the doctrine of qadar (predestination)…’ ”