He was born in 213 AH, making him younger than his brother Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad, the judge of the people of Isfahān.
He transmitted a vast amount from his father, including the entire Musnad and the work al-Zuhd. He also narrated from Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbdawayh, the companion of Shuʿbah, and he refused to receive any reports from ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd because the latter had adopted a position of withholding judgement (1) on the question of the Qur’an. Among the other authorities he heard from were: Shaybān ibn Farrūkh; Hawtharah ibn Ashras; Suwayd ibn Saʿīd; Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn; Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ al-Dūlābī; al-Haytham ibn Khārijah; ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Ḥammād; Abū al-Rabīʿ al-Zahrānī; Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah; Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Sāmī; ʿUbayd Allāh al-Qawārīrī; Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Muqaddamī; Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Warkānī; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb; Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī; Isḥāq ibn Mūsā al-Khaṭmī; Abū Maʿmar Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm al-Hudhalī; Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUbayd ibn Abī Karīmah; al-Ḥakam ibn Mūsā al-Qanṭarī; Khalaf ibn Hishām al-Bazzār; Dāwūd ibn Rushayd; Dāwūd ibn ʿAmr al-Ḍabbī; Rawḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Muʾmin; Abū Khaythamah; Surayj ibn Yūnus; ʿAbbād ibn Yaʿqūb; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAwn al-Kharrāz; ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muʿādh; Kāmil ibn Ṭalḥah; Muḥammad ibn Abān al-Wāsiṭī; Muḥammad ibn Abān al-Balkhī; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād al-Makkī; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmmār; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī al-Shawārib; Manṣūr ibn Abī Muzāḥim; Wahb ibn Baqiyyah; and many others.
Those who narrated from him include: al-Nasāʾī, who cited two ḥadiths from him in his Sunan; al-Baghawī; Ibn Ṣāʿid; Abū ʿAwānah al-Isfarāʾīnī; al-Khaḍir ibn al-Muthannā al-Kindī; and Abū Bakr ibn Ziyād.