an authoritative proof, a jurist, the leading ḥadith transmitter of Iraq—Abū Bakr al-Baghdādī, the Shāfiʿī, known as al-Bazzār and al-Saffār, the holder of the elevated fascicles called the Ghaylāniyyāt (1).
He was born at Jabbul (2) in 260 AH, the same year al-Ṭabarānī was born.
His first public audition of ḥadith was in 276 AH.
He then heard from: Mūsā ibn Sahl al-Washshāʾ, a student of Ibn ʿUlayyah; Muḥammad ibn Shaddād al-Mismaʿī, a companion of Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī al-ʿAwām; Abū Qilābah al-Raqāshī; Muḥammad ibn Maslamah al-Wāsiṭī; al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Usāmah al-Tamīmī; Muḥammad ibn Yūnus al-Kudaymī; and Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Sulamī al-Tirmidhī.
He also studied with Ibrāhīm ibn Isḥāq al-Ḥarbī; Ismāʿīl ibn Isḥāq the judge; Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā; ʿAbd Allah ibn Rūḥ al-Madāʾinī; Muḥammad ibn Ribḥ al-Bazzāz; ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbduwayh al-Khazzāz; Abū al-Aḥwaṣ Muḥammad ibn al-Haytham the judge; Muḥammad ibn Ghālib Tamṭām; Muḥammad ibn al-Faraj al-Azraq; Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd Allah al-Narsī; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Birtī the judge; Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Shākir al-Ṣāʾigh; Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Kazālah; al-Ḥasan ibn Salām al-Sawwāq; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Juʿfī; and Abū Muslim.