and his reputation spread far and wide.

Those who narrated from him include the six canonical compilers—apart from al-Nasāʾī. Al-Tirmidhī also transmitted from him through an intermediary, and among the others who reported from him were Aḥmad ibn Salamah, ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Hāniʾ, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj, Ibn Khuzaymah, and many more. From the earlier generation, Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā al-Zamin likewise transmitted ḥadith from him.

The Amīr of Khurāsān, ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṭāhir, summoned him to Nīshāpūr so that he might teach ḥadith there; he stayed for a considerable period, then assumed the judgeship of Sarakhs, after which he was recalled to Nīshāpūr, and there he died (1).

Abū ʿAmr al-Mustamlī said, “We visited him during his illness, and he bequeathed ten thousand dirhams and a mule to be given in charity. He added, ‘If I should die, my servants ʿAnbar, Fatḥ, Ḥamdān, and ʿAllān are free for the sake of Allah.’”

Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal remarked, “No Khurāsānī who has come to us was more learned in fiqh than Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī.”

A historian—whose name escapes me—relates that Aḥmad al-Dārimī arrived in Herat to visit its governor, Hārūn ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muṣʿab, seeking his kindness; the governor lodged him in his own house and presented him with four thousand dirhams (2).

He was an authority on transmitter criticism, hidden defects, and history; from him our colleagues in Herat learned the science of ḥadith.

I say: he was considered a peer of Abū Zurʿah and Ibn Wārah.

I also say: he died in 253 AH.

Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Ribāṭī has already been mentioned, and ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī will be discussed later.