until al-Ḥākim said: “He compiled the Musnad in four hundred parts (ajzāʾ), copying it in his own hand; he arranged its topical headings in two hundred and sixty parts, and he produced a Qur’an commentary in two hundred and thirty parts.⦗1⦘

“He read half a part to us on Friday morning. We then rose to prepare for the prayer, and after we had prayed I sat for a while. Suddenly I heard the crier announcing his funeral. I shouted, ‘That cannot be!’—yet he had gone into the bathhouse and died there.

“When we had performed the funeral prayer for him, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Aṣamm said, ‘I used to say that, once I am gone, the distinction in hadith narration should belong to ʿAlī ibn Hamshādh.’ His death occurred in Shawwāl of the year 338 AH.

“I heard Abū Bakr ibn Isḥāq say, ‘I accompanied ʿAlī ibn Hamshādh both at home and on journeys, and I do not know of a single sin the angels ever recorded against him.’⦗2⦘

“And I heard Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥāfiẓ say, ‘Among our teachers I have never seen anyone more firmly grounded in transmission and authorship than ʿAlī ibn Hamshādh.’⦗3⦘

“I also heard his son ʿAbd Allah say, ‘To the best of my knowledge, my father never once neglected the night prayer.’⦗4⦘

“Al-Ḥākim later cited twenty hadiths about him in his History of Naysabūr.

“Those who transmitted from him include al-Ḥākim himself, Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥāfiẓ, and Abū ʿAbd Allah ibn Manda.⦗5⦘"}