ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥarb ibn ʿĪsā al-Baghdādī.

He heard hadith from Aḥmad ibn al-Miqdām, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah, Zayd ibn Akhzam, Yūsuf ibn Mūsā al-Qaṭṭān, al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Zaʿfarānī, and others of their rank.

Those who transmitted from him include Abū ʿUmar ibn Ḥayyūyah, Abū Bakr ibn al-Muqriʾ, Abū Ḥafṣ ibn Shāhīn, and several others.

Abū Bakr al-Barqānī said: “I mentioned Ibn Ḥarbawayh to al-Dāraqutnī, who spoke of his standing and merit and remarked, ‘al-Nasāʾī narrated from him in his Sahih.’ He then said, ‘Not a single report of his reached me, and he died five years after I had begun writing hadith.’” (1)

I (the author) add: He held the judgeship of Egypt, arriving there in 293 AH.

Ibn Zulāq said: “He was versed in the disciplines of juristic disagreement, semantic analysis, and analogy; well-acquainted with the sciences of the Quran and hadith; eloquent, intelligent, chaste, outspoken in the truth, generous, and staunch in his convictions. The governor of Egypt, Takīn, (2) would attend his gathering and would not allow him to stand for him; yet when he came to Takīn’s own assembly, the governor would rise and walk forward to greet him.

“His dress and outward appearance were unimpressive, and the marks of smallpox showed on his face, but he was among the leading scholars of his time.”

Imām Abū Bakr ibn al-Ḥaddād said: “I heard Abū ʿUbayd the judge say, ‘What have I to do with the judiciary! Had I confined myself to manuscript-copying (warāqa), my handwriting would not have grown so poor.’”

His monthly stipend was one hundred and twenty dinars.

Ibn Zulāq also related that Abū ʿUbayd the judge said, “No one practices blind imitation except a zealot or…"