I add: He was one of al-Ḥākim’s teachers.

Al-Khalīlī said, “I heard al-Ḥākim say, ‘He was a jurist, a man of letters, devout and scrupulous, and a hadith scholar—and he was truly great. For I heard Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad relate that he heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal say: “I once asked my father about Ibrāhīm ibn Mūsā al-Rāzī, who was nicknamed al-Ṣaghīr (the Younger). My father replied, ‘My son, do not call him ‘the Younger’; he is great, he is great, he is great.’”’”

Al-Ḥākim then commented, “I have cited this anecdote as an illustration of Abū ʿAmr’s rank.”

Al-Khalīlī went on to say, “He died in the early 360s AH.”

I say: The correct date is, in fact, the one mentioned earlier.

36 – Al-Isfarāyīnī, al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Azhar *

The hadith scholar, trustworthy authority, and indefatigable traveller: Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Azhar al-Isfarāyīnī, the father of Abū Nuʿaym.

His maternal uncle, the ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAwānah, took him on scholarly journeys.

He received hadith from Abū Bakr ibn Rajāʾ, al-Kajji, Ibn al-Ḍurays, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, Yūsuf the Judge, Abū Khalīfa, and many others.

Al-Ḥākim transmitted from him, saying, “He was the leading hadith scholar of his era and among the finest people with respect to their original manuscripts.”

I add: Among those who narrated from him were ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Isfarāyīnī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Bālūwayh, and others.

He died in Shaʿbān, 346 AH.