He died suddenly in Egypt in Jumada al-Akhirah of the year 344 AH.

299 – Abū Sahl al-Qaṭṭān Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh *

The imam, ḥadith scholar, and reliable transmitter, the musnid of Iraq: Abū Sahl Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ziyād ibn ʿAbbād al-Qaṭṭān, a Baghdadi.

He heard ḥadith from Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-ʿUṭāridī, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-Munādī, Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Madāʾinī, Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib, Muḥammad ibn al-Jahm, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Ḥunaynī, Ismāʿīl al-Qāḍī, and several others. He transmitted a large body of material and was without peer in his time.

Those who narrated from him include al-Dāraqutnī, Ibn Manda, al-Ḥākim, Ibn Razqūwayh, Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Bishrān, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ḥammāmī, Abū ʿAlī ibn Shādhān, and others—the last of them being Abū al-Qāsim ibn Bishrān.

Al-Khaṭīb said: “He was truthful, refined, and a poet, well-versed in Arabic literature, transmitting it from Thaʿlab and al-Mubarrad, and he inclined toward Shiʿism (1).”

Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bishr al-Qaṭṭān said: “I have never seen anyone better at drawing from the Quranic verses whatever he wished than Abū Sahl ibn Ziyād. He was our neighbor, and he constantly observed the night prayer and recitation; through his frequent study, the Quran seemed to be right before his very eyes.”