Baqiyy ibn Makhlad (1) ibn Yazid, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Andalusi, the ḥāfiẓ, was one of the foremost scholars of the western lands. He authored a Tafsīr, a Musnad, a Sunan, and other collections of traditions—works that Ibn Ḥazm ranked above the Tafsīr of Ibn Jarīr, the Musnad of Aḥmad, and the Muṣannaf of Ibn Abī Shaybah, though Ibn Ḥazm’s assessment warrants reconsideration. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir included him in his Tārīkh (2), praised him generously (3), described him as masterful in memorization and precision, and noted that his supplications were answered—may Allah have mercy on him. He recorded his death in this same year at the age of seventy-five (4).
Al-Ḥusayn ibn Bashār ibn Mūsā (5), Abū ʿAlī al-Khayyāṭ, transmitted ḥadith from Abū Bilāl al-Ashʿarī, and Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī narrated from him; he was trustworthy. While suffering from an illness he saw in a dream someone saying to him, “Eat not and drink not.” He interpreted the message by the Divine words, “a blessed olive tree that is neither of the east nor of the west” (al-Nūr 35). Accordingly, he ate olives and drank their oil and was cured of that ailment (6).
Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm (7), Abū Jaʿfar al-Anmaṭī—known as Marabbaʿ—was a pupil of Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn and was reliable and well-versed in ḥadith.
ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn al-Barqā (8).
ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Baghawī (9), author of the Musnad.
Muḥammad ibn Waḍḍāḥ (10), the compiler.
(1) Actually, he died in 276 AH; the author provides his biography there.
(2) Mukhtasar Tarikh Ibn ‘Asakir, vol. 5: 235.
(3) In manuscripts B and Zā: the reading is jaddan.
(4) This is what the compiler wrote, but it is a mistake on his part (may Allah have mercy on him). Ibn ‘Asakir’s Tarikh Dimashq states that he died in 276 AH (some say 273 AH) and does not claim he died in this year as the compiler asserts. His biography has already appeared under the deaths of 276 AH.
(5) In Al-Usūl: al-Ḥasan ibn Bishār; al-Taṣḥīḥ min al-Muntazam, vol. 6: 21; and Tarikh Baghdad, vol. 7: 24.
(6) Ibn al-Jawzī narrates this in detail, stating that the one who fell ill and saw the vision was actually the father of Abū ‘Umar Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Qāḍī, and that Abū ‘Alī al-Khayyāṭ was the first to relate it to him (Tarikh Baghdad, vol. 8: 25).
(7) Tarikh Baghdad, vol. 1: 388; al-Kāmil by Ibn al-Athīr, vol. 7: 496.
(8) Abū Sa‘īd, a transmitter of the Sīrah from ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Hishām; he was truthful (ṣaduq), elderly, and a man of learning. Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’, vol. 13: 48.
(9) Abū al-Ḥasan al-Baghawī, resident of Mecca, a ḥāfiẓ and truthful narrator (ṣaduq). He authored al-Musnad al-Kabīr and studied the recitations under Abū ‘Ubayd and others. He was strong in ḥadīth and was deemed reliable by al-Daraqutnī. Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’, vol. 13: 348.
(10) In manuscript A: Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Waḍḍāḥ, which preserves what appears in manuscript T; the biography is absent in manuscripts B and Zā.