Eighteenth Tier
251 – adh-Dhahabī, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan*
The ḥadith master, scholar, and itinerant traditionist: Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan ibn Abī Ḥamzah al-Balkhī, who later settled in Nishapur.
He transmitted from Abū Ḥafṣ al-Fallās, Muḥammad ibn Bashshār, Ḥajjāj ibn ash-Shāʿir, Salm ibn Junādah, Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā adh-Dhuhlī, Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ad-Dārimī, and their contemporaries.
Those who narrated from him include: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥāfiẓ, Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Bustī, Abū Bakr al-Ismāʿīlī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Qazzāz, Abū Aḥmad ibn al-Ghitrīf, Abū Muḥammad al-Makhladī, and others.
Nevertheless, he has been criticized.
Al-Ismāʿīlī said, “He was reckless with drinking.” (1)
Al-Ḥākim remarked, “Some of his notebooks came into my possession, and they contained astonishing things.”
Abū ʿAlī likewise held a poor opinion of him.