194 – Abū Jaʿfar ibn Ḥamdān, Aḥmad ibn Ḥamdān ibn ʿAlī*
The Imām, ḥāfiẓ, and ascetic exemplar whose supplications were answered, Shaykh al-Islām, Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Ḥamdān ibn ʿAlī ibn Sinān al-Ḥīrī al-Naysābūrī, father of the two shaykhs: Abū al-ʿAbbās Muḥammad and Abū ʿAmr Muḥammad.
He was born around 240 AH, or slightly earlier.
He heard ḥadith from Aḥmad ibn al-Azhar, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hāshim al-Tūsī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Bishr, Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhalī, and those who came after them in his own region; he also travelled and performed ḥajj.
Among the teachers from whom he took knowledge were: Abū Yaḥyā ibn Abī Maysarah, Abū ʿAmr ibn Abī Ghrazah al-Ghifārī, Ismāʿīl al-Qāḍī, ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Ziyād, Muʿādh ibn Najdah, and their peers.
He journeyed with his son Abū al-ʿAbbās to Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb al-Bajalī and others, and later travelled with his son Abū ʿAmr to al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān and his contemporaries. He authored al-Ṣaḥīḥ, an independent extraction based on Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, and he was one of the great vessels of knowledge.
Those who narrated from him include: Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ḥīrī the ascetic, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī the ḥāfiẓ, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd, Abū al-Walīd Ḥassān ibn Muḥammad, Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿUqdah, his two sons, and a number of others.
Al-Ḥākim said: I heard Abū ʿAmr ibn Ḥamdān state, “When my father had reached…"