261 – al-Balkhī, Abū ʿAlī ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad

The great Imām and ḥāfiẓ of Balkh, Abū ʿAlī ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Balkhī.

He heard ḥadith from Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd, Ibrāhīm ibn Yūsuf al-Faqīh, ʿAlī ibn Ḥujr, Hadiyyah ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, and their contemporaries.

Among those who narrated from him were Abū Ḥāmid ibn al-Sharqī, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī, the scholars of Nīshāpūr, Ibn Qāniʿ, al-Jiʿābī (1), Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī, and a number of Baghdadis.

He collected and authored the books al-ʿIlal and al-Tārīkh.

Al-Ḥākim held him in high esteem and spoke of him with reverence.

Al-Khaṭīb said: “He was one of the imams (2) of ḥadith in memorization, precision (3), reliability, and prolific transmission, and he produced several works. (4)”

Aḥmad ibn al-Khaḍr al-Shāfiʿī reported: “When ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Balkhī arrived in Nīshāpūr, the scholars there were unable to match him in hadith comparison. Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad ibn Naṣr therefore challenged him with the hadiths of Hajj, and ʿAbd Allāh recited them one after another. Jaʿfar then asked him, ‘Do you retain the narration of al-Taymī, from Anas—“Indeed, the Messenger of Allah pronounced the talbiyah for both Hajj and ʿUmrah (5)”?’ Al-Balkhī was taken aback. Jaʿfar then said, ‘Yahya narrated it to us…’