—and by the renown he achieved.

He produced exceptionally accurate transmissions from the Egyptian narrators (1) and the Syrians, and he was a trustworthy, reliable authority.

Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ṭālib said, “No one presented Mālik’s hadith to us as expertly as al-Ismāʿīlī.”

Al-Ḥākim related: “I heard his son, Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, say, ‘My father fell ill in Ṣafar of the year 289 AH and remained in that state until he died in Dhū al-Ḥijjah of the year 295 AH.’”

It was also said that he was afflicted with facial paralysis (2) and lived with it until he passed away—may Allah have mercy on him.

I (the author) add: Among those who narrated from him was Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn Ḥamdān, resident in Khwarazm.

He collected, refined, and arranged the hadith of al-Zuhrī, the hadith of Mālik, and those of several other scholars.

In my Tadhkirah (3) I have reproduced from him a high-isnād hadith taken from the fascicle of Ibn Nujayd.

61 – Ibrāhīm ibn Asbāṭ ibn al-Sakan al-Kūfī, the cloth-merchant

A long-lived shaykh whose status is one of obscurity.

He heard hadith from ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī, Bishr ibn al-Walīd, and a number of others.

Those who narrated from him include Ibn Qāniʿ, Abū Bakr al-Jaʿābī, Abū Ḥafṣ al-Zayyāt, and others.

He died in 302 AH, although another report states that he died in 301 AH.