91 – Muḥammad ibn Masʿūd ibn Yūsuf al-Ṭarsūsī * (d.)
An imam, exemplar, and ḥāfiẓ; Abū Jaʿfar, the son of al-ʿAjamī, a native of Ṭarsūs and the foremost shaykh of the frontier region in his day.
He transmitted hadith from ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, Zayd ibn al-Ḥabbāb, ʿAbd al-Razzāq, and those of their generation.
Among those who narrated from him were: Abū Dāwūd in his Sunan, his son Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd, Jaʿfar al-Firyābī, Muḥammad ibn Waḍḍāḥ—the ḥāfiẓ of al-Andalus—Ḥājib ibn Arkīn, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Wahb al-Dīnawarī, al-Ḥusayn ibn Ismāʿīl al-Maḥāmilī, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj, and many others.
Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb ⦗1⦘ and others declared him trustworthy.
Ibn Waḍḍāḥ was lavish in his praise of him. Abū ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr relates that Ibn Waḍḍāḥ said, “I have never seen anyone more knowledgeable in hadith than Muḥammad ibn Masʿūd.” He also said, “His rank is lofty and he is virtuous; he is in no way inferior to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.” ⦗2⦘