Al-Dāraqutni said: Abu Bakr al-Shāfiʿī told us that Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī was asked about Isḥāq ibn al-Ḥasan, whereupon he replied, “It is he who ought to be asked about us.”
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “He is reliable. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī was once asked about him and remarked, ‘He is three years older than I am, and I myself have met Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad—would he not have met him? Even if lying were lawful, Isḥāq would never lie.’” (1)
I say: he was among the eminent scholars.
He died in Shawwāl of 284 AH, having surpassed ninety years of age.
Ibn Ṭabarzad received his hadith with a lofty chain.
In that same year there also passed away: Abū ʿAmr Aḥmad ibn al-Mubārak al-Mustamlī (2); ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Qurashī (3); Maḥmūd ibn al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī (4); Yazīd ibn al-Haytham al-Bādāʾ (5); Hishām ibn ʿAlī al-Sīrāfī; and Rāfiʿ ibn Harthamah (6), who was slain.
199 – al-Baladī, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn al-Haytham*
The hadith scholar, seasoned traveller, and truthful narrator, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn al-Haytham al-Baladī, a resident of Baghdad.