They also say that Ṣāliḥ’s son was rather slow-witted, so Ṣāliḥ would quip, “I asked Allah to give me a child, and He granted me a camel.”

Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Ḥākim records in his History: “Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad, Abū ʿAlī, was one of the pillars of memorisation; he heard from Saʿīd ibn Sulaymān al-Wāsiṭī.”

I add: this Saʿīd is Saʿdawayh, Ṣāliḥ’s earliest shaykh. Al-Ḥākim then listed ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd and a number of others, saying, “These men belong to the generation after the Successors, and Ṣāliḥ’s travels spanned the whole world—he copied hadiths from Egypt all the way to Samarqand.”

He reached Naysābūr in 253 AH and stayed there for a time. When al-Dhuhlī died, Ṣāliḥ still wished to hear certain reports from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Quhzādh, so he journeyed to him. News also reached him in Marw of some solitary narrations from ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad al-Bukhārī, so he set out for them as well.

He said, “The emir Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad in Bukhārā tried to dissuade me, then turned gracious, so I settled there, married, and children were born to me.”

He died in Bukhārā late in 293 AH.

I heard Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Ḍabbī say: I heard Bakr ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣayrafī say: I heard Abū ʿAlī Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad relate:

“I entered Egypt and found a huge teaching circle. I asked, ‘Who is this?’ They answered, ‘A grammarian.’

“I drew nearer and heard him say, ‘Any word that contains a ṣād may rightly be pronounced with a sīn.’

“So I pushed through the crowd and said, ‘Peace be upon you, Abū Ṣāliḥ. Have you sallayed yet?’—intentionally replacing the ṣād of ṣallaytum (‘prayed’) with a sīn.

“He retorted, ‘You insolent fellow! What kind of talk is that?’

“I replied, ‘It is taken from what you have just said.’

“He remarked, ‘I suppose you are one of Baghdad’s riff-raff.’

“I said, ‘Exactly so—just as you see.’”

Ibn ʿAdī said: I heard ʿIṣmah ibn Bajmāk say: I heard Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad Jazara recount:

“I was present in the gathering of Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ when he proclaimed, ‘It is strictly forbidden for any innovator or debauchee to attend my session.’

“So I said, ‘As for the debauchee, that is I’—for he used to be nicknamed ‘Ṣāliḥ the Debauchee’—‘and here I am in your gathering.’”