He died in 256 AH. (1)
224 – al-Saghani, Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Jaʿfar* (Muslim, Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasaʾi)
An imam, ḥadith master, meticulous critic, and authoritative scholar: Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Jaʿfar.
Some maintained that his grandfather’s name was Muhammad; he was called al-Saghani and later al-Baghdadi. (2)
He was born about the year 180 AH. Endowed with broad learning, he travelled far and wide in its pursuit.
He received ḥadith from Yazid ibn Harun, ʿAbd al-Wahhab ibn ʿAta, Abu Badr Shujaʿ ibn al-Walid, Muhadir ibn al-Muwarriʿ, Yaʿla ibn ʿUbayd, Ruh ibn ʿUbada, Ahwas ibn Jawab, Saʿid ibn Abi Maryam, ʿAbd al-Aʿla ibn Mushir, al-Aswad ibn ʿAmir, Abu al-Yaman, Saʿid ibn ʿAmir al-Dubaʿi, Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn, Abu al-Nadr, Yahya ibn Abi Bukayr, ʿAbd Allah ibn Yusuf al-Tinnisi, and many others.
(1) In Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 3/245, Ibn Yunus says that the narrator was reliable (thiqa), and al-Khatịb gives the same verdict. Al-Nasaʾi, in Asma Shuyukhihi, remarks that “there is nothing objectionable in him,” while Maslama b. Qasim describes him as “a righteous man, prolific in hadith, trustworthy.” Principal sources: Jarh wa-taʿdil 7/195-196; Tarikh Baghdad 1/240-241; al-Ansab 8/68; Tahdhib al-Kamal no. 1165; Tadhhib al-Tahdhib 3/183/1; al-Ibar 2/46; al-Wafi bi-l-wafayat 2/195; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 9/35-36; Tabaqat al-huffaz 256; Khulasa tadhhib al-kamal 326; Shadharat al-dhahab 2/160; al-Muntazam 5/78.
(2) Al-Samʿani notes in al-Ansab, 8/68, that the nisba al-Saghani—with an open sad, a dotted ghayn, and a final nun—derives from a cluster of settlements beyond the Jayhun River called Jaghaniyan, Arabised as al-Saghaniyan. It is a vast, fertile district, rich in water, vegetation, and population; its market is large and its congregational mosque well-known and attractive. A person from there may be called al-Saghani or al-Sagani. He then introduces the biographee.