treating it as a preface to the work, and he deliberately set aside beginning with the version that runs through the Imām Mālik, opting instead for this chain because of al-Humaydī’s eminent rank and seniority. Moreover, this particular isnād is extraordinarily rare: it contains no ʿanʿanah at all—every single narrator explicitly states that he heard the report directly.

213 – Yahyā ibn Abī al-Khaṣīb Ziyād al-Rāzī*
A ḥadith master and the judge of ʿUkbarā (1); he was counted among the leading authorities.

He narrated from: Ḥammād ibn Zayd, Muʿāwiyah “al-Ḍāll” (2), Marḥūm ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, ʿAlī ibn Mushir, ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus, Yahyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah, al-Walīd ibn Muslim, and many others.

He undertook scholarly journeys and possessed extensive expertise.

Those who transmitted from him include: ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, Muḥammad ibn ʿĀmir al-Anṭākī, Ibrāhīm ibn Mūsā al-Farrāʾ, ʿAlī ibn Maysarah, Abū Zurʿah, Abū Ḥātim, and others.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: “I heard my father remark, ‘He was trustworthy, a vessel of knowledge; to the best of my knowledge, no one in his time had a larger collection of ḥadith than he (3).’”

I asked, “Not even Ibrāhīm ibn Mūsā, nor Abū Jaʿfar al-Jammāl?”

He replied, “Not even those two.”

Abū Zurʿah said: “Reliable and well-known.”