the Basran, known as al-Ṣaffār, the step-son of al-Kudaymī, and the author of the book al-Sunan (1), arranged on the Musnad pattern from which Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī so often quotes in his works.

He heard ḥadith from Muḥammad ibn Yūnus al-Kudaymī, Muḥammad ibn al-Faraj al-Azraq, al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Usāmah, Muḥammad ibn Ghālib Tamtām, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Tirmidhī, Abū Muslim al-Kajji, Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Bayān, Ibn Abī Qamāsh, al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl al-Asfāṭī, Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Bāghandī, and many others of the same tier. The highest-grade material in his possession came from the pupils of Yazīd ibn Hārūn and their peers.

Those who narrated from him include al-Dāraqutnī, the judge Abū ʿUmar al-Hāshimī, ʿAlī ibn al-Qāsim al-Najjād, Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Jumayʿ, ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān, and a number of others.

Al-Dāraqutnī said, “He was trustworthy and firmly established; he compiled a Musnad and produced it with great refinement.”

I (the author) add: Ibn ʿAbdān heard from him in 341 AH, and he died shortly thereafter.

I read to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim; ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Muḥammad the judge informed you, in 609 AH, in my presence. He said: ʿAlī ibn al-Musallam told us; al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāb told us; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār in Baghdad narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Ghālib narrated to us; Abū Ḥudhayfah narrated to us; Sufyān narrated to us, from Yūnus, from al-Ḥasan, from Abū al-Safar, from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—