- Ibn al-Naffāḥ Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bāhilī
The imam, ḥadith scholar, reliable authority, proficient master, ascetic, and exemplar—Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Naffāḥ ibn Badr al-Bāhilī al-Baghdādī, resident of Egypt and its foremost traditionist.
He studied under Isḥāq ibn Abī Isrāʾīl, Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqī, Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar al-Dūrī the Qurʾān reader—learning the modes of recitation from him—and a number of others.
Transmitters from him include Abū Saʿīd ibn Yūnus, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Khalaf al-Bazzār, Abū al-Ṭayyib al-ʿAbbās ibn Aḥmad al-Hāshimī, Abū Bakr ibn al-Muqriʾ, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Muhandis, and others.
Ibn Yūnus said: He died in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, 314 AH.
He added: He was trustworthy, precise, devoted to ḥadith, and took little from worldly life.
The ḥāfiẓ Ḥamzah al-Kinānī said: I heard Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Bāhilī say, “My merchandise is scant, yet Allah puts blessing in it.”
The author adds: He also heard in Damascus from Maḥmūd ibn Khālid, mastered the Qurʾān under Abū ʿUmar al-Dūrī, and lived to be a little over eighty years old.