He also authored al-Irshād on grammar, a commentary on the book of al-Jarmī, Kitāb al-Hijāʾ (Spelling), a commentary on al-Faṣīḥ, Gharīb al-Ḥadīth, Adab al-Kātib, al-Mudhakkar wa-l-Muʾannath, al-Maqṣūr wa-l-Mamdūd, al-Maʿānī fī al-Qirāʾāt, and other works besides.

He was a staunch champion of the Basran school of grammar (1). Distinguished scholars graduated under him. Ibn Mandah and others declared him reliable, whereas Hibat Allāh al-Lālkāʾī deemed him weak, saying: “I have been told that someone said to him, ‘Narrate a hadith from ʿAbbās al-Dūrī and we will give you a dirham,’ so he did—even though he had never heard from him.” (2)

Al-Khaṭīb comments: “I heard him mention this, but the story is groundless; Ibn Durustawayh was far too eminent to lie.” Ibn Razqawayh transmitted to us his dictations, which include his reports from ʿAbbās.

I questioned al-Burqānī about him, and he replied, “They weakened him because of his transmission of Yaʿqūb’s Taʾrīkh from him.” They argued: “Yaʿqūb only taught that book long ago—when, then, did he hear it from him?” Al-Khaṭīb remarks: “This point deserves scrutiny, for Jaʿfar ibn Durustawayh was among the senior ḥadith specialists; he had heard from ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī and his peers, so it is not far-fetched that he introduced his son to audition at an early age. Moreover, Abū al-Qāsim al-Azharī told me, ‘I examined the autograph of Ibn Durustawayh’s copy of the History of Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān and found his audition therein to be sound.’” (3)

I say: He died in Ṣafar 347 AH. He had studied under Thaʿlab and al-Mubarrad, and his writings are many.