Yūsuf ibn Afrajah.

Among those who also passed away were: the ḥāfiẓ of the age Abū Isḥāq ibn Ḥamzah just mentioned; the Qur’an-reciter of Baghdad Abū ʿĪsā Bakkār ibn Aḥmad; the musnid Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Wāsiṭī, the tutor; the musnid of the time Abū al-Fawāris Shujāʿ ibn Jaʿfar al-Baghdādī, the bookseller, who died in the tenth decade of his life; the musnid of the non-Arabs ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Bundār al-Madīnī, the teacher of Abū Nuʿaym; the musnid of Damascus Abū al-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Abī al-ʿAqab al-Hamdānī; and the muḥaddith of Damascus Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn Hārūn ibn Shuʿayb al-Anṣārī.

86 – Al-Ṭabarānī, Abū al-Qāsim Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad ibn Ayyūb*

He was the Imām, ḥāfiẓ, trustworthy authority, indefatigable traveller, and muḥaddith of Islam, the dean of the long-lived: Abū al-Qāsim Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad ibn Ayyūb ibn Muṭayr al-Lakhamī, native of greater Syria, known as al-Ṭabarānī, author of the three Muʿjams.

Birth: He was born in the city of ʿAkkā during Ṣafar 260 AH; his mother was also from ʿAkkā.

His first session of audition was in 273 AH. His father—himself a student of Duḥaym and a man of hadith—took him on the road and watched over him with great care. Thus his very first journey took place in 275 AH, after which he spent sixteen years travelling and meeting scholars, writing from everyone he encountered. He mastered this discipline, collected and compiled works, and lived to a very advanced age,