131 – al-Azraq, Abū Bakr Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq*

He was a shaykh, a scholar, and a reliable authority. His full name is Abū Bakr Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb, son of the ḥadīth scholar Isḥāq ibn Buhlūl, the Tanūkhī from Anbār who later moved to Baghdad and served as a scribe.

He was born in 238 AH.

He received ḥadīth from his grandfather, Bishr ibn Maṭar, al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah, the ḥadīth master Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah, and several others.

Those who narrated from him include Ibn al-Muẓaffar, al-Dāraquṭnī, Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Jumayʿ, Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Mutayyam, Ibrāhīm ibn Khurrashīdh Qūlah, and others. It has even been claimed that the ḥadīth scholar Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī transmitted from him, but this is incorrect; Abū Yaʿlā’s name was merely inserted as an extra link in the isnād of a report.

Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Azraq said, “I heard my father say: By the year 315 AH more than fifty thousand dinars had passed through my hands in avenues of charity.” (1)

The judge Abū al-Qāsim al-Tanūkhī remarked, “Yūsuf al-Azraq was a distinguished and resourceful clerk; he was austere in his religious life and one who commanded what is right.” (2)

He died at the end of 329 AH.