He was born in 250 AH.

He attended the funeral of Imām Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhlī and joined the prayer over him.

Among those from whom he heard ḥadīth were: the Imām’s son, Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad Ḥaykān; ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan al-Hilālī al-Darābajirdī—Darābajird being a suburb of Nīshāpūr that borders the desert; Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Saʿdī; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Farrāʾ; Khushnām ibn al-Ṣiddīq; Isḥāq ibn ʿImrān al-Isfarāyinī the jurist; al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl al-Bajalī the Qurʾānic exegete; the Imām Muḥammad ibn Naṣr al-Marwazī; Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Turk; al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Ziyād al-Qabbānī; and many others.

He gathered ḥadīth exhaustively, and, despite his prodigious memory and far-reaching knowledge, he never travelled in search of traditions; instead, he was satisfied with the material available in his own city (1).

Those who narrated from him include: Abū Bakr ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣibghī, Ḥassān ibn Muḥammad the jurist, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Mandah, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim, Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Muzakkī, and many others.

Al-Ḥākim said, “After Ibn al-Sharqī, he was the foremost scholar of ḥadīth in our land: he memorised with precision and understood deeply. He authored al-Mustakhraj ʿalā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn and compiled al-Musnad al-Kabīr, and Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj asked him to produce a work based on Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, so he did (2).”

I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yaʿqūb on more than one occasion say, “My life has passed in …"