Aḥmad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Khalīfah ibn ʿAbd al-ʿĀl, Abū al-ʿAbbās Shihāb al-Dīn ibn al-Ḥusbanī, d. 815 AH. Ibn Fahd remarks: “He received knowledge from the two ḥadīth masters, Ibn Kathīr and Ibn Rāfiʿ.”(1)

Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar ibn Maḥmūd ibn Īmān, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Anṭākī—later al-Dimashqī—the Ḥanafī, d. in Shaʿbān 815 AH. Al-Sakhāwī states: “He left his hometown for Aleppo and then Damascus, where he heard from Ibn Kathīr, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ṣafadī, and others.”(2)

Masʿūd ibn ʿUmar ibn Maḥmūd ibn Anmār, Sharaf al-Dīn, the Anṭākī grammarian who settled in Damascus, d. 815 AH. Ibn al-ʿImād writes: “He came to Damascus and studied under al-Ṣafadī, Ibn Kathīr, and others.”(3)

Aḥmad ibn al-ʿAlāʾ Ḥajjī ibn Mūsā ibn Aḥmad, Shihāb al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Ibn Ḥajjī al-Saʿdī al-Ḥusbanī, d. 816 AH. He was trained in the sciences of ḥadīth by the two memorisers, Ibn Kathīr and Ibn Rāfiʿ.(4) Ibn Ḥajjī praised his teacher Ibn Kathīr and openly stated that he remained in his company for six years.(5) He also produced a supplement to al-Bidāyah wa-l-Nihāyah, which he entitled Tārīkh Ibn Ḥajjī; the work has been published.

Muḥammad ibn Salmān ibn Muḥammad, Shams al-Dīn, originally from Baghdad but a native of the Ṣāliḥiyyah quarter of Damascus, a Shāfiʿī Qādirī Sufi who later settled in Cairo, born c. 750 AH, d. 820 AH. Al-Sakhāwī reports: “He sought knowledge assiduously, keeping close company with Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī, Fath al-Dīn ibn al-Shahīd, and ʿImād (Ibn Kathīr). From Ibn Kathīr he heard the latter’s work on the sciences of ḥadīth and his treatise on the merits of jihād, and Ibn Kathīr wrote him a fine licence to transmit.”(6)

Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Maʿālī, Abū al-Maʿālī Shams al-Dīn al-Ḥabattī,(7) d. 824 AH. Al-Sakhāwī says: “In Damascus he heard from the later pupils of al-Fakhr, such as Ibn Umaylah; he likewise heard from—”