al-Muʾammal ibn al-Hasan; Abū ʿAmr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥayrī; Abū Ḥāmid ibn al-Sharqī; Muḥammad ibn Hāniʾ—the teacher of al-Ḥākim; Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim al-ʿAtakī; ʿAlī ibn Ḥamshādh; Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Shaybānī; Muḥammad ibn al-Muʾammal al-Māsarjisī (1); Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaydalānī; his grandson Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl; and a number of others.
He compiled and authored books.
Abū Naṣr ibn Mākūlā (2) said: He recited the Qur’an to Khalaf, and he possessed Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s History and Sunayd al-Miṣṣīṣī’s Tafsīr.
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Some scholars spoke critically of him (3).
Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Akhram said: He is reliable, but excessive in his Shīʿī leanings.
Al-Ḥākim said: I have not seen any disagreement among the leading authorities who heard from him regarding his trustworthiness and truthfulness—may Allah be pleased with him.
He was a man of letters and a jurist, learned and devout, widely traveled in search of ḥadīth, sharp-minded, and well-versed in the assessment of narrators. He alone transmitted several works that no one after him related: the Large History from Aḥmad, the Tafsīr from Sunayd, the Readings from Khalaf, the Tanbīh from Yaḥyā ibn Aktham, the Maghāzī from Ibrāhīm al-Ḥizāmī, and the Fitān from Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād.
I heard Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad say: My grandfather al-Faḍl died in Muḥarram of the year 282 AH.