Al-Mughīrah embraced Islam at the hands of al-Yamān al-Juʿfī (1), the governor of Bukhara; previously he had been a Magian. After that, Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm set out in search of knowledge.
Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī related to us; Jaʿfar al-Hamadhānī related to us; Abū Ṭāhir ibn Silafah related to us; Abū ʿAlī al-Bardānī related to us; Hunnād ibn Ibrāhīm related to us; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad the ḥāfiẓ related to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated to us, saying:
Isḥāq ibn Aḥmad ibn Khalaf narrated to us that he heard al-Bukhārī say, “My father heard ḥadith from Mālik ibn Anas, saw Ḥammād ibn Zayd, and shook hands with ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak with both of his hands.”
I add: Abū ʿAbd Allāh was born in Shawwāl of the year 194 AH.
This was stated by Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Bukhārī, the amanuensis of Abū ʿAbd Allāh, in the book he compiled under the title “The Characteristics of al-Bukhārī,” a substantial fascicle.
Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Khair transmitted it to me from Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ṭarsūsī, who reported that Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir the ḥāfiẓ had authorized him. He said: Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Khalaf informed us; Abū Ṭāhir Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mihrawayh al-Fārisī, the tutor, informed us—he had come to us from Marw to visit Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Sulamī; Abū Muḥammad Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn Maṭar al-Firabrī informed us, saying: “My grandfather narrated to us: I heard Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥātim mention the book. What I transmit from it comes through this chain.”
Moreover, as Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān informed us, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad the jurist informed us in the year 616 AH, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī informed us; Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī informed us; Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan the ḥāfiẓ informed us—