Al-Khaṭīb said, “He was reliable and trustworthy.” (1)
He used to say, “I gave testimony before the judge Ibrāhīm ibn Abī al-ʿAnbas in the year 270 AH.” (2)
Ibn Ḥammād the ḥāfiẓ remarked, “He was the foremost shaykh of Kūfa, the man preferred by the ruler and the judges—a leader of disciples, possessed of jurisprudential insight and excellence in Qur’an recitation.” (3)
He died in Ramaḍān 343 AH, and Ibn ʿUqda (4) attended his gatherings frequently.
- Ibn al-Sammāk — ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad al-Baghdādī*
The shaykh, the Imām, the prolific and truthful ḥadith scholar, the senior transmitter of Iraq: Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd al-Baghdādī, the daqqāq, known as Ibn al-Sammāk.
Under his father’s careful supervision he heard ḥadith from: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-Munādī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-ʿAṭāridī, Ḥanbal ibn Isḥāq, al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Maʿshar, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Ḥunaynī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥārithī Kurbazān, Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib, al-Ḥasan ibn Mukram, and many others.