al-Ashras: ʿAmmār, a client (mawlā) of the Banū Asad ibn Khuzaymah.

He was the eminent Imām, master ḥāfiẓ and authoritative proof, the hadith scholar of the eastern lands: Abū ʿAlī al-Asadī al-Baghdādī, nicknamed Jazara—spelled with a jīm and a zāy—who eventually settled in Bukhārā.

Birth: 205 AH in Baghdad.

He heard ḥadīth from: Saʿīd ibn Sulaymān Saʿdawayh; Khālid ibn Khidāsh; ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd; ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAyshī; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Asmāʾ; Abū Naṣr al-Tammār; Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Ḥimmanī; Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal; Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn; Hudbah ibn Khālid; Minjāb ibn al-Ḥārith; Abū Khaythamah; al-Azraq ibn ʿAlī; Khalaf ibn Hishām al-Bazzār; Hishām ibn ʿAmmār, and other scholars of their rank in the Two Sanctuaries, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Khurāsān, and Transoxiana.

He gathered narrations, authored works, and excelled in this discipline.

Those who narrated from him include: Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj—outside his Ṣaḥīḥ and only slightly older than him—; Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Jārūd al-Iṣbahānī; Abū al-Naḍr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Faqīh; Khalaf ibn Muḥammad al-Khayyām; Abū Aḥmad ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥabībī; Bakr ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥamdān al-Ṣayrafī; al-Haytham ibn Kulayb al-Shāshī; Aḥmad ibn Sahl; Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣābir; and many others besides them.

He took up permanent residence in Bukhārā in 266 AH, where the amir honored him with generosity and esteem.

Al-Dāraqutnī said: “He is a descendant of Ḥabīb ibn Abī al-Ashras; he lived in Bukhārā, and his ḥadīths are preserved among its people. He was trustworthy, a ḥāfiẓ, and a participant in military campaigns.”

The ḥāfiẓ Abū Saʿd al-Idrīsī remarked: “As for Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad, I know of no one in his era, whether in Iraq or Khurāsān, whose power of memorization equalled his. He crossed into Transoxiana and taught there for a considerable period…”