and Ibn Maḥbūb, together with a host of leading scholars, transmitted ḥadīth from him, and he was renowned for integrity and learning. He died sometime after 280 AH; such is how his date of death is recorded.
The ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān al-Ghunjār (1) says in his Taʾrīkh Bukhārā: “Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Sawrah ibn Mūsā ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk al-Sulamī al-Tirmidhī, the ḥāfiẓ, entered Bukhārā and taught there. He is the author of the Jāmiʿ and the Taʾrīkh. He passed away in Tirmidh (2) on the night of Monday, the thirteenth of Rajab in the year 279 AH.”
The ḥāfiẓ Abū Ḥātim Ibn Ḥibbān, in al-Thiqāt (3), remarks: “He was one of those who gathered, authored, memorised, and debated ḥadīth.”
Al-Tirmidhī said: “Al-Bukhārī wrote down from me the ḥadīth of ʿAṭiyya, from Abū Saʿīd, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said (4): ‘It is not permissible for anyone to remain in a state of major ritual impurity in this mosque except me and you.’ (5)”
Ibn Nuqṭah (6) relates in his Taqyīd (7) that al-Tirmidhī said: “I compiled this sound Musnad, presented it to the scholars of the Ḥijāz and they approved of it; I presented it to the scholars of Iraq and they approved of it; I presented it to the scholars of Khurāsān and they approved of it. Whoever keeps this book in his home is as though a prophet were speaking there.”
They further state that the comprehensive Musnad which al-Tirmidhī composed numbers one hundred and fifty-one books, and that he authored Kitāb al-ʿIlal in Samarqand, completing it on the day of ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā in the year 270 AH.