and asceticism. He was asked to take the judgeship of Samarqand, but he refused; the ruler persisted until he accepted the appointment. He passed only a single judgment, then requested to be relieved, and his request was granted. He possessed the utmost intelligence and the highest virtue, and people cited him as a proverb for religiosity, forbearance, composure, diligent striving and worship, renunciation of the world, and living on little. He authored al-Musnad, al-Tafsir, and al-Jamiʿ (1).

Ishaq ibn Ibrahim al-Warraq said, “I heard ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman say, ‘I was born in the year Ibn al-Mubarak died—that is, in 181 AH.’”

Ahmad ibn Sayyar al-Marwazi, the hadith master, said, “Al-Darimi had a fine command of the discipline; he committed al-Musnad and al-Tafsir to writing.”

He died in 255 AH, on the Day of Tarwiyah (2) after the ʿAsr prayer, and was buried on the Day of ʿArafah, a Friday, at the age of seventy-five.

The hadith scholar Makki ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Mahan al-Balkhi, his pupil, recorded a similar date of death. Whoever claimed that he died in 250 AH was mistaken, for a number of authorities adopted the earlier date.

Ishaq ibn Ahmad ibn Khalaf said, “We were with Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil al-Bukhari when a letter arrived announcing the death of ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman, whereupon he bowed…"