127 – Ibn Bilāl, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Naysābūrī

The shaykh, senior transmitter, and reliable authority, Abū Ḥāmid Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Bilāl al-Naysābūrī—better known as al-Khashshāb because he lived in the carpenters’ quarter—was born around 240 AH.

He heard ḥadith from Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhlī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Bishr, Aḥmad ibn Ḥafṣ, Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Sulamī, Aḥmad ibn al-Azhar, Aḥmad ibn Manṣūr Zāj, and a number of other scholars in his own city. After performing the pilgrimage he received further transmissions: in Baghdad from al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Zaʿfarānī and others; in Kufah from Mūsā ibn Isḥāq al-Qawwās al-Kinānī—his audition with him took place in 259 AH; in Hamadhān from Sakhtūyah ibn Māziyār and others; and in Mecca from Yaḥyā ibn al-Rabīʿ and Baḥr ibn Naṣr al-Khawlānī.

His reputation spread, and the highest chains of transmission of the time converged upon him.

Al-Khalīlī said, “He is reliable, trustworthy, and well-known; the leading scholars heard from him.”

I say: Among those who narrated from him were Abū ʿAlī al-Naysābūrī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mandah, ʿĀṣim ibn Yaḥyā al-Zāhid, Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Suttūrī, Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-ʿAlawī, Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz the physician, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmish al-Ziyādī, and others.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim met him but did not obtain any transmissions from him.

He recorded: “He died on the Day of ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā in 330 AH.”

That same year also witnessed the deaths of al-Maḥāmilī; the Shāfiʿī master Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣayrafī of Baghdad, one of the foremost jurists; the Sufi shaykh and ascetic Abū Yaʿqūb Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad al-Nahrajūrī; and Tabūk ibn Aḥmad al-Sulamī, a companion of Hishām ibn