those of them who were present retorted, “It is not as he says.” So Aḥmad seized him and put him to death. It is said that he had him walled up. Another report states that he ordered that his testicles be dragged until he died. (1)
Al-Ḥākim said, “I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Akhram say, ‘I have never seen anyone like Ḥaykān; may Allah not show mercy to his killer.’” (2)
106 – Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah al-Asadī * (s)
Judge, mufti, and ḥadīth scholar of Damascus; the imam and unrivaled ḥāfiẓ, known as Abū Bakr and also Abū ʿAbd Allāh. He was the son of the great Basran ḥadīth master Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muqassim al-Asadī (3), and the youngest of his brothers. We know of no transmission he took from his father.
He studied under Muḥammad ibn Bishr al-ʿAbdī, Isḥāq al-Azraq, Yaḥyā ibn Ādam, Wahb ibn Jarīr, Yazīd ibn Hārūn, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bakr al-Sahmī, and several others.
Those who narrated from him include al-Nasāʾī, Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī, Abū Bishr al-Dulābī, Abū ʿArūbah al-Ḥarrānī, Ibn Jawṣā, Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Mallās, the judge Muḥammad ibn Bakkār al-Batlihī, Abū al-Dahdāḥ Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, and others.
Al-Nasāʾī said, “A Damascene ḥāfiẓ, reliable.” (4)