129 – Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī, Muḥammad ibn Idrīs ibn al-Mundhir ibn Dāwūd ibn Mihrān (D, S, T), together with his son, was an Imām, ḥāfiẓ, and penetrating critic, the shaykh of the hadith scholars. He was al-Ḥanẓalī al-Ghaṭafānī, a descendant of Tamīm ibn Ḥanẓala ibn Yarbuʿ.
Some said he was called al-Ḥanẓalī because he lived in Darb Ḥanẓala in the city of Rayy.
He was an ocean of knowledge: he travelled widely, excelled in both text (matn) and chain (isnād), compiled and authored works, classified narrators as weak or reliable, authenticated reports, and exposed their hidden defects.
He was born in 195 AH.
The first hadith he committed to writing was in 209 AH. He was a peer of al-Bukhārī and belonged to the same generation, but he lived more than twenty years after him.
He heard hadith from: ʿUbayd Allah ibn Mūsā; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Anṣārī; al-Asmaʿī; Qabīṣa; Abū Nuʿaym; ʿAffān; ʿUthmān ibn al-Haytham, the muʾadhdhin; Abū Mushir al-Ghassānī; Abū al-Yamān; Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam; Zuhayr ibn ʿAbbād; Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr; Abū al-Walīd; Ādam ibn Abī Iyās; Thābit ibn Muḥammad, the ascetic; Abū Zayd al-Anṣārī, the grammarian; ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿIjli; ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṣāliḥ, the scribe; Abū al-Jamāhir Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān; Hawdha ibn Khalīfa; and Yaḥyā