He travelled far and wide in pursuit of knowledge.
He studied under Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī, Abū Bakr al-Ḥumaydī, Abū ʿUbayd, Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and Isḥāq ibn Rāhūyah.
Those who transmitted from him include al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad al-Kirmānī—who later settled in Tarsus—ʿAbd Allāh ibn Isḥāq al-Nahāwandī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yaʿqūb al-Kirmānī, Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (his close companion), Abū Bakr al-Khallāl, and many others.
Al-Khallāl remarked, “He was a venerable man; al-Marwadhī urged me to set out and meet him.”
I add: Ḥarb’s Masāʾil is among the most precious Ḥanbalī works; it is a substantial compilation in two volumes.
ʿAbd al-Bāqī ibn Qāniʿ recorded his death in 280 AH.
I further note: he lived to nearly ninety years of age, and I know of no shortcoming in him—may Allah, Exalted is He, have mercy upon him.
128 – al-Sarī ibn Khuzaymah ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Abīwardī
The Imām, ḥāfiẓ, and authoritative scholar, Abū Muḥammad al-Abīwardī, the ḥadith master of Nīshāpūr.
During his travels he heard ḥadith from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Muqriʾ, Abū Nuʿaym, ʿAbdān ibn ʿUthmān, Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm, Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣalt, and their contemporaries.
Those who narrated from him include Abū Bakr ibn Khuzaymah, Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ṭālib, Abū Ḥāmid ibn al-Sharqī, Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Hāniʾ, al-Ḥasan ibn Yaʿqūb, and many others.
Al-Ḥākim said, “He is a shaykh whose reliability surpasses that of the ordinary trustworthy narrators. He arrived in Nīshāpūr in 270 AH, continued teaching there until 274 AH, then returned to Abīward, and I heard …”