Muhammad said: I heard Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil relate, “When I arrived in Basra I went straight to Bundar’s gathering. The moment his eyes fell on me he asked, ‘Where is the young man from?’ I replied, ‘From Bukhara.’ He then said to me, ‘How did you leave Abu ʿAbd Allah?’ I remained silent, so the people said to him, ‘May Allah have mercy on you—this is Abu ʿAbd Allah himself.’ At once he stood up, took me by the hand, embraced me, and said, ‘Welcome to the one I have been proud of for years’ (1).

He also said: I heard Hashid ibn Ismaʿil, who heard Muhammad ibn Bashshar say, ‘No man more knowledgeable of hadith than our brother Abu ʿAbd Allah has ever entered Basra.’

He added: When Abu ʿAbd Allah was about to leave, Muhammad ibn Bashshar bade him farewell, saying, ‘O Abu ʿAbd Allah, our next meeting will be on the Day of Gathering; we are unlikely to meet again in this world.’

Abu Quraysh Muhammad ibn Jumʿah al-Hafiz reported: I heard Muhammad ibn Bashshar say, ‘The leading hadith masters of the world are four: Abu Zurʿa in Rayy, al-Darimi in Samarkand, Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil in Bukhara, and Muslim in Nishapur’ (2).

Muhammad ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Ashʿath al-Bikandi recounted: I heard ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal say—quoting his father—‘Faultless memorization has been entrusted to four men from Khurasan: Abu Zurʿa al-Razi, Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil al-Bukhari, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Samarqandi, and al-Hasan ibn Shujaʿ al-Balkhi’ (3).

Ibn al-Ashʿath continued: I repeated this to Muhammad ibn ʿAqil al-Balkhi, and he spoke glowingly of Ibn Shujaʿ. I asked, ‘Why, then, did he not become famous?’ He answered, ‘Because he was not granted a long life.’