al-Karim—that is, the Razi; ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman—that is, the Samarqandi; and al-Hasan ibn Shujaʿ—that is, the Balkhi.

I then asked, “Father, which of these men possessed the strongest memorisation?”

He replied, “As for Abu Zurʿah, he can rattle off narrations the fastest; as for Muhammad, he is the most knowledgeable of them; as for al-Darimi, he is the most precise; and as for Ibn Shujaʿ, he is the most comprehensive in covering the various chapters.”

Abu ʿAmr Muhammad ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Ashʿath al-Bikandi said, “I heard ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad relate that he heard my father say:

‘The mantle of memorisation has settled upon four men from Khurasan: Abu Zurʿah, al-Bukhari, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman, and al-Hasan ibn Shujaʿ.’”

Abu ʿAmr continues: “I reported this to Muhammad ibn ʿAqil, and he spoke most highly of al-Hasan ibn Shujaʿ. I asked him, ‘Yet he never became as famous as the others, did he?’ He replied, ‘That is because he was not granted a long life.’”

Ibn Hibban states in al-Thiqat: “Al-Hasan ibn Shujaʿ was one of the hadith scholars who travelled extensively, wrote copiously, memorised widely, and engaged in much discussion. He died while still a young man, so people derived little benefit from him.”

Al-Hakim says: “Ibn Shujaʿ was among the leading authorities in hadith. He journeyed in search of knowledge and authored works, but death overtook him before he reached the age of fifty. Al-Bukhari transmitted from him in the Sahih.”

Al-Hakim further reports that he died in mid-Shawwal, 266 AH, at the age of forty-nine.

This same report is transmitted from Saʿid ibn Muhammad al-Sufi, on the authority of Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Balkhi, yet it is an untenable error. If this date of death were correct, he would not have lived much beyond seventy years—hardly long enough to have met, during his travels, men like ʿUbayd Allah ibn Musa. Otherwise, determining his exact age is baseless.