and crying, “Alas for Islam!” When the people asked who they were, the two replied, “We have come from Aghmat (1) in the far West. We have spent a year and a half on the road, travelling to this Imām so that we might hear ḥadīth from him, but our arrival has coincided with his passing.”

His writings include: a Qur’an commentary; the Book of History; the History of Women; his Biographical Dictionary; the Book of the Sunnah; the Book of Proverbs; the Book of Vision; the Book of Divine Greatness; the Book of Jizya; the Book of Heart-Softeners; the Musnad al-Abwāb; the Book of Chapters on Rare Ḥadīth; the Book of Qur’ānic Readings; the Book of Verses and the Miracles of the Saints; the Book of Those Whose Few Ḥadīths Are Nevertheless Collected; the Paths of Performing Ghusl on Friday; the Ḥadīths of Mālik; the Book of Benefits; the ḥadīths of Manṣūr ibn al-Muʿtamir, Muḥammad ibn Jahādah, and Qurrat ibn Khālid; and other works besides these.

His father, Aḥmad (2), was one of the great and affluent merchants; he endowed all his property—orchards, houses, and shops—to his children.

Among the shaykhs from whom he heard ḥadīth were Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAmr, Sahl ibn ʿUthmān, and ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī al-Fallās.

He died in Shawwāl of the year 282 AH.

Abū Nuʿaym, the ḥadīth master, said in his History of Iṣfahān: “Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm, the client of al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Kasīb al-ʿAnbarī, Abū Aḥmad al-ʿAssāl, is accepted in transmission. He was among the foremost people in knowledge and memorisation. He authored works on the shaykhs, on history, on tafsīr, and on nearly every category of the musnad.”

(1) Aghmat: a town in present-day Morocco.
(2) Aḥmad: the father of Abū Aḥmad al-ʿAssāl.