any want, then settle it from this wealth of mine.
Some time later he came to me and said, “I am about to embark by sea. If I perish, the money remains in your hands on the terms I have stipulated.” So it has remained with me exactly as he said. Then he added, “Do not tell anyone about this for as long as I am alive.” I kept the matter secret until he died. His death occurred in Jumada al-Akhirah of this year, at the age of ninety-four or ninety-five—may Allah have mercy on him.
ʿAbd al-Bāqī ibn Qāniʿ (1) ibn Marzūq, Abū al-Ḥasan (2), the Umayyad mawlā (client).
He heard Ḥārith ibn Abī Usāmah, and from him ad-Dāraqutnī and others received hadith. He was known for trustworthiness, reliability, and remarkable memory, but his condition deteriorated at the end of his life. Ad-Dāraqutnī (3) said, “He used to make mistakes and persist in them.” He died in Shawwal of this same year (4).
Abū Bakr an-Naqqāsh the Exegete (5): Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Ziyād ibn Hārūn ibn Jaʿfar, Abū Bakr, nicknamed an-Naqqāsh, the exegete and Qur’an reciter.
He was the mawlā of Abū Dujānah Simāk ibn Kharashah, originally from Mosul. He possessed expertise in tafsīr and the variant Qur’anic readings, and he collected a great deal of material, travelling through many lands and hearing from numerous shaykhs. Abū Bakr ibn Mujāhid, al-Khuldī, Ibn Shāhīn, Ibn Ruzquyah, and many others narrated from him; the last to transmit from him was Abū ʿAlī ibn Shādhān. He narrated some isolated and objectionable reports; ad-Dāraqutnī pointed out many of his mistakes, whereupon he retracted them. Some scholars went so far as to declare him a fabricator, and Allah knows best.
He composed a work of tafsīr that he entitled “Shifāʾ al-Ṣudūr” (Healing of the Hearts); others claimed the title was “Ishfā (6) al-Ṣudūr (7).”
(1) Sualāt al-Sahmī, p. 236; al-Fihrist by al-Ṭūsī, p. 122; Tarīkh Baghdād (History of Baghdad), vol. 11, pp. 88–89; al-Ikmāl, vol. 7, p. 91; al-Muntazam, vol. 7, p. 14; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (Lives of Noble Scholars), vol. 15, pp. 526–527; Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāḍ (Memoir of the Hadith Critics), vol. 3, pp. 883–884; Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl (Scale of Moderation), vol. 2, pp. 532–533; al-ʿIbar (Lessons), vol. 2, p. 292; Mirʾat al-Jinān (Mirror of Heavens), vol. 2, p. 347; al-Jawāhir al-Muḍīya (The Shining Jewels), vol. 1, p. 293; Lisān al-Mīzān, vol. 3, pp. 383–384; al-Nujūm al-Zāhira (Splendid Stars), vol. 3, p. 333; Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥuffāḍ, p. 361; Shudhūrāt al-Dhahab (Fragments of Gold), vol. 3, p. 8; al-Risāla al-Mustatrafa, p. 127.
(2) In all his biographical sources, except al-Muntazam and Mirʾat al-Jinān, he is called Abū al-Ḥusayn.
(3) Sualāt al-Sahmī by al-Daraqutnī, entry no. 334.
(4) In al-Ikmāl (vol. 7, p. 91) it is stated that he died in 354 AH.
(5) al-Fihrist, p. 36; Tarīkh Baghdād, vol. 2, pp. 201–205; al-Ansāb, p. 566 b; Tarīkh Ibn ʿAsākir, vol. 15, pp. 121 b–124 a; al-Muntazam, vol. 7, pp. 14–15; Muʿjam al-Udabāʾ, vol. 18, pp. 146–149; al-Lubāb, vol. 3, pp. 234–235; Wafayāt al-Aʿyān, vol. 4, pp. 298–299; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 15, pp. 573–576; Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāḍ, vol. 3, pp. 908–909; al-ʿIbar, vol. 2, pp. 292–293; Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl, vol. 3, p. 520; al-Mughnī fī al-Ḍuʿafāʾ, vol. 2, p. 570; Maʿrifat al-Qurrāʾ, vol. 1, pp. 294–298; al-Wāfī bi’l-Wafayāt, vol. 2, pp. 345–346; Mirʾat al-Jinān, vol. 2, p. 347; Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya (al-Subkī), vol. 3, pp. 145–146; Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya (al-Isnawī), vol. 2, p. 483; Ghāyat al-Nihāya, vol. 2, pp. 119–121; Lisān al-Mīzān, vol. 5, p. 132; Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥuffāḍ, pp. 370–371; Ṭabaqāt al-Mufaṣṣirīn (al-Dāwūdī), vol. 2, pp. 131–133; Shudhūrāt al-Dhahab, vol. 3, pp. 8–9; al-Risāla al-Mustatrafa, pp. 77–78.
(6) In al-Shifāʾ the reading is al-muḥtaqib yukhraz bihi, meaning an awl used by the cobbler. In Lisān al-ʿArab it appears as shafī. One manuscript reads sikām al-ṣudūr.
(7) Al-Dhahabī comments: “What makes it clear to me is that this man, despite his eminence and transmission, is abandoned—not reliable.” (Tarīkh al-Islām, vol. 8, p. 37).