He narrated from his father, having memorized every one of his father’s books.

Those who narrated from him include ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq al-Zajjājī and his son ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Aḥmad. He was appointed judge over Egypt and died there.

Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Khurrazādh said: “Abū Jaʿfar delivered the contents of all his father’s books in Egypt entirely from memory, never consulting a written volume. He died in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the year 322 AH, after holding the judiciary for two and a half months. When he was dismissed the populace assaulted him verbally, and Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥammād assumed the post after him.”

Al-Musabbaḥī said: “He knew every one of his father’s works—down to the dots and vowel marks—as perfectly as he knew the Quran. They numbered twenty-one titles. When people of letters and learning heard of this they flocked to him, as did the sons of kings, and they studied under him.”

Ibn Zulāq said: “He was a Mālikī, a sharp-tempered shaykh. I recall that his father had him memorize the books from a writing tablet.”

In that same year died Ṣāliḥ, son of the ḥadith scholar Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿIjlī; Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr al-ʿUqaylī; and Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Daybulī.

325 – Ibn Abī al-ʿAzāqir, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī:
The heretic (zindiq), the disgraced one—Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Shalmaghānī, the Rāfiḍī.