Bahr ibn Nasr al-Khawlani said, “I heard Ibn ʿUlayya declare: ‘In your land I have not seen anyone who masters knowledge except Ishaq ibn al-Furat.’ (1)

Ibn ʿAbd al-Hakam affirmed, ‘I have never seen a jurist better than he.’ (2)

Ahmad ibn Saʿid al-Hamdani reported, ‘Ishaq ibn al-Furat recited Malik’s Muwattaʾ to us from memory, and—so far as I could tell—he did not omit a single letter.’ (3)

It is related from Ishaq himself that he said, ‘I was born in the year 135 AH.’ (4)

I say: He is Ishaq ibn al-Furat ibn al-Jaʿd ibn Sulaym, the client of the commander Muʿawiyah ibn Hudayj. He assumed the judiciary of Egypt as deputy for the chief judge Muhammad ibn Masruq.

Abu Hatim al-Razi was asked about him and replied, ‘An elder, but not well-known.’ (5)

Ibn al-Dhahabi commented: ‘He is not famous for hadith, yet he is certainly renowned for his leadership in jurisprudence. He lived seventy years.’

Abu Saʿid ibn Yunus stated that he died on the second of Dhu al-Hijjah in the year 204 AH. (6)

I add: In that same year, and before him, al-Shafiʿi and Ashhab passed away in Egypt. When a single city loses men of such calibre within one year, its deficiency becomes manifest.

That year also witnessed the deaths of the hadith master of Basra, Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi; the scholar of Marw, al-Nadr ibn Shumayl; and the genealogist Hisham—