His father:

22 – Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq, Abū Isḥāq* (Kh (1))

An imam, ascetic, devout worshiper, warrior, and champion of Islam. Abū Isḥāq hailed from Surmārā, one of the villages around Bukhārā.

He heard hadith from Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd, ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar ibn Fāris, Abū ʿĀṣim, and their peers.

Those who narrated from him include his son, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ, Idrīs ibn ʿAbdak, and others.

He was counted among the reliable authorities, and his courage became proverbial.

Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAffān al-Bazzāz said: “I was with Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Bukhārī when Abū Isḥāq al-Surmārī was mentioned. He remarked, ‘We know of no one like him in Islam.’ I went out and encountered Aḥīd, the head of the muṭṭawwiʿa (volunteer fighters). I informed him, whereupon he grew angry, entered upon al-Bukhārī, and questioned him.

Al-Bukhārī replied, ‘That is not exactly what I said; rather, I said: We have never been informed of anyone like him, whether in Islam or even in the pre-Islamic era.’”

Isḥāq ibn Aḥmad ibn Khalaf heard this statement from Ibn ʿAffān.

Abū Ṣafwān recounted: “I once entered upon my father while he was eating alone. On his table there was a sparrow eating with him; when it saw me, it flew away.”

Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq also said: “The commander of a raiding party should possess ten qualities: the heart of a lion—never cowardly; the proud bearing of a tiger—never self-effacing; …”