from Abū Bakr al-Bazzār.
In his old age he journeyed about, spreading his hadith. He narrated in Isfahān from the leading authorities, and likewise in Baghdad, Egypt, Mecca, and Ramla.
Death overtook him at Ramla, and he died in the year 292 AH.
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Dāraqutnī mentioned him, saying, “Reliable, but he makes mistakes and relies on his memory.”
Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim said, “He errs in both the chain of transmission and the matn.”
Al-Ḥākim Abū ʿAbd Allāh reported: “I asked al-Dāraqutnī about Abū Bakr al-Bazzār, and he said, ‘He makes mistakes in both isnād and matn. He recited the Musnad in Egypt from memory; he would look into other people’s books and then narrate from memory, possessing no books of his own, so he erred in many hadith.’” (1)
Al-Nasāʾī criticised him.
Abū Saʿīd ibn Yūnus said, “He was a ḥāfiẓ, well-versed in hadith.”
He died at Ramla; the date was given as just mentioned. (2)
ʿAlī ibn Baqāʾ and ʿAbd al-Dāʾim ibn Aḥmad al-Wazzān (3) told us: ʿAlī ibn Maḥmūd told us—in the year 627 AH—that Abū Ṭāhir al-Salafī told us, that Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Miṣrī told us, that Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥāfiẓ dictated to us in the year 410 AH, that my grandfather Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn