—from beginning to end—asking myself, ‘Is the hadith really there or not?’ I fear I might slip while choosing, and you are devils sitting round about me!’
It was said that the one who gave him the nickname “ʿUbayd al-ʿIjl” was Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn.
Ibn Qāniʿ stated: “He died in Ṣafar, 294 AH.”
I say: He was in his eighties.
50 – al-Barbarī, Abū Aḥmad Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Ḥammād*
The imām, ḥāfiẓ, distinguished scholar, and historian: Abū Aḥmad Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Ḥammād al-Barbarī, al-Baghdādī.
He was born in 213 AH.
He heard (hadith) from ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-Qawārīrī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ṣāliḥ, and their cohort.
Those who narrated from him include Aḥmad ibn Kāmil al-Qāḍī, Ismāʿīl al-Khuṭabī, Ibn Qāniʿ, al-Ṭabarānī, and several others.
Al-Khaṭīb said: “He was a historian, intelligent, well-acquainted with the chronicles of people, and he used to dye his beard red.”
Al-Dāraqutnī said: “He is not strong.”
I say: Others were more accurate than he, yet he was one of the repositories of knowledge and is mentioned together with al-Maʿmarī.