and by Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Nasāʾī, all through the transmission of Qutaybah.

Abū Yaʿlā al-Khalīlī said in his Irshād: “Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Mihrān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Thaqafī is trustworthy, and unanimously judged to satisfy the criteria of the Ṣaḥīḥ. Because of his learning and breadth of knowledge, he kept attending gatherings until he wrote from his peers and even from those younger than himself. I have heard that he collected material from one thousand five hundred teachers, and more besides.

Those who reported from him include al-Bukhārī, Abū Ḥātim, al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān, and Ibn Khuzaymah.

Among those who died in the same year as al-Sarrāj were: the reliable Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sābūr al-Daqqāq; the leading transmitter of Nīshāpūr, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Māsarjisī; the eminent scholar Abū al-Qāsim Thābit ibn Ḥazm ibn Muṭarrif al-Saraqusṭī, the linguist; the muḥaddith of Kūfa, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zaydān ibn Burayd al-Bajalī, known for his devotion; Abū ʿUmar ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān al-ʿUthmānī—an associate of Ibn al-Madīnī; the jurist Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Bashshār al-Baghdādī, the ascetic; the muḥaddith Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī ʿAwn al-Nasawī; Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ziyād al-Ṭayālisī; Abū Labīd Muḥammad ibn Idrīs ibn Iyās al-Sāmī al-Sarakhsī; the ḥāfiẓ Abū Quraysh Muḥammad ibn Jumʿah al-Quhustānī; the judge Abū ʿUbayd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdah ibn Ḥarb—who is not reliable; and the imam of the congregational mosque of Wāsiṭ, Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb al-Wāsiṭī.