and he related to me that Muḥammad had asked him about the ḥadith, “You are to me in the position of Aaron to Moses (1),” and about the ḥadith, “For whomever I am the guardian (mawlā) (2).” I replied, “The first is more authentic, the second less so.”

He went on: “So I said to Ismāʿīl, ‘It has several transmission lines; have both the Basrans and the Kufans narrated it?’”

He answered, “Yes—and ruined and bankrupt is anyone who does not have ʿAlī as his guardian.”

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm said, “Ismāʿīl was the first in Baghdad to appoint certain people as legal witnesses while disqualifying others, declaring, ‘People have become corrupt.’”

Abū Sahl al-Qaṭṭān reported that Yūsuf the Judge told them:
“A royal rescript from al-Muʿtaḍid reached his vizier stating: ‘Give special care to the two upright and virtuous shaykhs, Ismāʿīl ibn Isḥāq and Mūsā ibn Isḥāq, for they are among those whose supplications cause Allah to turn away punishment from the people of the earth should He intend it for them.’”

I say: He held the judgeship of Baghdad for twenty-two years, and before that had been judge of the eastern quarter in 246 AH. He was greatly esteemed, outwardly dignified, lofty in rank; his transmissions appear with an elevated chain in the Ghaylāniyyāt.

He died suddenly in the month of Dhu al-Ḥijjah, 282 AH.

ʿAwf al-Kindī said: “Ismāʿīl the Judge came out to us for the ʿIshāʾ prayer wearing a Yemeni brocade cloak worth two hundred dinars.”