Abū Bakr was born in 257 AH. His books were lost in a fire, and only two fascicles survived—both of which he had heard from al-ʿAṭṭāridī (1).

Those who transmitted from him include Abū Muslim the secretary and others. He was a distinguished leader, extraordinarily wealthy, unrivalled in his generosity. Judges and dignitaries regularly visited his door. He performed the pilgrimage twenty times, fasted frequently, was constant in attending the congregational prayer, and was once struck by misfortune at the hands of the vizier Ibn Hinzābah (2): one million dinars were taken from him and he was imprisoned for a time in Ramla. Al-Ikhshīd (3) later released him and treated him with exceptional honour (4).

Al-Musabbiḥī reports that his administrative register listed sixty thousand people whose upkeep he covered, and that every month he gave away one hundred thousand ratls of flour in charity. It is also said that during his lifetime he manumitted one hundred thousand slaves. Keen-witted and quick on the uptake, he completed one full recitation of the Qur’an every day and night. The annual revenue from his estates reached four hundred thousand dinars, and, according to al-Musabbiḥī (5), he spent one hundred thousand dinars on a single pilgrimage.

He died in 345 AH—may Allah have mercy on him.

258 – al-Aṣamm, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Yūsuf al-Naysābūrī *
The Imām, ḥadith master, and transmitter