I heard Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭabasi (1) say:

“We were in Baghdad, accompanied by ʿAbd Allāh, the mustamli (relay-reader) of Ṣāliḥ Jazara. Someone said to Abū Muslim al-Kajjī, ‘This is Ṣāliḥ’s mustamli.’

He asked, ‘And who is Ṣāliḥ?’

They replied, ‘Ṣāliḥ al-Jazarī.’

He exclaimed, ‘Shame on you! How lightly you regard him. Why do you not say, “the leader of the scholars of the Muslims”? We were among the last people to arrive.’

Then he said, ‘How is my brother and elder? What do you want?’

We answered, ‘The narrations of Muḥammad ibn ʿArʿara and the anecdotes of al-Aṣmaʿī.’

So he dictated them to us entirely from memory; he was blind and his beard was dyed with henna.

Fārūq al-Khaṭṭābī relates: ‘When we had finished studying the Sunan with al-Kajjī, he prepared a banquet for us on which he spent one thousand dinars. Abū ʿUbāda al-Buḥturī (2) had composed verses in praise of al-Kajjī, and al-Kajjī rewarded him with money.

It is also said that, after completing his narration, he gave ten thousand dirhams in charity as thanks to Allah.

He died in Baghdad on the seventh of Muḥarram, 292 AH. His body was taken to Basra and buried there, and he was nearly one hundred years old—may Allah have mercy on him.’

210 – Bakr ibn Sahl al-Hāshimī, their client, son of Ismāʿīl ibn Nāfiʿ, the imam, traditionist, Abū Muḥammad al-Hāshimī, their client, from Damietta, exegete and Qur’an reader.