and his peers. He then returned, performed the pilgrimage, and travelled on to Egypt and, afterward, to Syria.

Allah blessed his knowledge until he became the leading imam of his era.

Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Dagulī said: I heard the ḥadith master Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad say:

“I entered Rayy, and Fazlak kept refreshing my memory about a report from Shuʿbah. He therefore dictated to me a narration from Shuʿbah, through ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣubayḥ, from Ibn Sīrīn, from Anas, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘This is my maternal uncle; let any man show me his uncle.’ (1)(2) I could not retain it, so Fazlak said, ‘I will make it secure for you. When you come to Nīshāpūr you will see a shaykh whose hair is gracefully grey, whose face is handsome, riding an Egyptian donkey and wearing fine clothes.

When you see him, know that he is Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā. Ask him about this report, for he holds it on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Wāṣil, from Shuʿbah.’

When I entered Nīshāpūr, a shaykh of that very description came toward me, and I thought, ‘It is likely to be him.’ I asked about him, and they said, ‘That is Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā.’ I followed him until he dismounted; I greeted him and informed him that I had come specifically to see him.

I took lodging in his mosque and copied down one of his sessions from his own autograph notes. When he came out and had prayed, I read it back to him. Then I said, ‘Did Saʿīd ibn ʿĀmir narrate to you from Shuʿbah?’—and I mentioned the report. He said to me, ‘Young man, one who can select narrations so carefully and read them with such precision must know that Saʿīd ibn ʿĀmir does not transmit from Shuʿbah anything of this sort…’