a spring. He drank from it and bathed, then returned to his father to give him water, only to find that his father had died. He thereafter came to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and tried to kiss his knee; the stirrup struck him, splitting his head, and from then on he was known as al-Ashajj (the scarred one).

A group of people accepted this story and circulated a booklet containing ḥadiths he claimed to have heard from ʿAlī. Among those who believed him was the ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Mufīd (1), who even transmitted the booklet from him. Al-Mufīd, however, was suspected of Shiʿite leanings, so he was more accommodating because the man linked himself to ʿAlī. The overwhelming majority of ḥadith scholars, ancient and modern, declared him a liar, rebutted his falsehood, and affirmed that the booklet he transmitted was fabricated. These scholars include Abū Ṭāhir Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Silafī, our own teachers, Shaykh al-Islām [Abū al-ʿAbbās] (2) Ibn Taymiyya, the master critic Abū al-Ḥajjāj al-Mizzī, and the ḥāfiẓ and historian of Islam Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Dhahabī (3). I have examined the issue in detail in my book al-Takmīl; all praise and favor belong to Allah.

Al-Mufīd said: “I have been informed that al-Ashajj died in 327 AH while returning to his homeland.”

Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Sahl (4), Abū Bakr al-Kharāʾiṭī, was the author of several works. Originally from Sāmarrāʾ, he settled in Syria and there narrated ḥadith from al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah and others.

Among those who also died this year was the great ḥāfiẓ, son of a great ḥāfiẓ, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Rāzī (5), compiler of al-Jarḥ wa’l-Taʿdīl (6), one of the finest works ever produced on the subject. He likewise authored a monumental Tafsīr renowned for its exhaustive chain-based citations, outstripping the Tafsīr of Ibn Jarīr and other commentators in the breadth of material it preserves