215 – Al-Baghandī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān ibn al-Ḥārith
The Imām, the great ḥāfiẓ, and the leading muhaddith of Iraq, Abū Bakr—the son of the muhaddith Abū Bakr al-Azdī—originally from Wāsiṭ and known as al-Baghandī; one of the foremost authorities in this field in Baghdad.
He was born in the teen years after 200 AH, and his first audition of ḥadith took place in Wāsiṭ in 227 AH.
He heard ḥadith from ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, Shaybān ibn Farrūkh, Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, Hishām ibn ʿAmmār, Suwayd ibn Saʿīd, Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ al-Jarjarāʾī, al-Ṣalt ibn Masʿūd al-Jahdarī, Abū Nuʿaym ʿUbayd ibn Hishām al-Ḥalabī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Ḥalabī, Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān Luwain, Duḥaym, Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī, ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Shuʿayb ibn al-Layth, al-Ḥārith ibn Miskīn, Muḥammad ibn Zunbur al-Makkī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr, Maḥmūd ibn Khālid al-Dimashqī, and many others.
He collected ḥadith, authored works, lived to an advanced age, and attained a singular distinction among his peers.