the ascetic imam, an exemplary figure, and a follower of the Shafiʿi school; author of the treatise known as the Qushayri Epistle. He wrote The Syntax of Hearts, Subtleties of Allusions, Jewels, The Rules of Spiritual Audition, The Best Answers to Various Questions, Intimate Supplications, and The Culmination: Insights for People of Understanding. He also composed the major exegesis, which is among the finest works of exegesis. He died in 465 AH (1).
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Abu Bakr Yaʿqub ibn Ahmad al-Sayrafi al-Naysaburi, the leading shaykh, a trustworthy transmitter with continuous chains. He died in 466 AH (2).
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Abu Salih Ahmad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Samad ibn Bakr al-Naysaburi, the Sufi muezzin; imam, hadith memorizer, ascetic, transmitter with continuous chains, and Khurasan’s hadith scholar. He authored The History of Marw and compiled one thousand hadiths from one thousand of his shaykhs. He died in 470 AH (3).
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Abu Turab Abd al-Baqi ibn Yusuf ibn Ali ibn Salih ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Harun al-Maraghi al-Nayrizi, a Shafiʿi and the mufti of Naysabur; an imam, jurist, and eminent scholar. He died in 492 AH (4).
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Abu al-Hasan Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Muzaffar ibn Muhammad ibn Dawud ibn Ahmad ibn Muʿadh al-Dawudi al-Bushanji: the imam, eminent scholar, scrupulously pious man, exemplary figure, and Beauty of Islam; Khurasan’s foremost shaykh in knowledge, merit, eminence, and chain of transmission; and a transmitter of the Sahih. He died in 467 AH (5).
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Among them were also: Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Fashani, the eminent imam and jurist; Abu al-Hasan Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Shirrazi, named after Shiraz, a village in Sarakhs; Abu Jaʿfar Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Muʿallim al-Tusi; Abu Muhammad Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Samad ibn Ahmad ibn Musa al-Juzjani; and Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn al-Fadl ibn Jaʿfar al-Kharaqi, named after Kharaq, one of the villages of Marw, as well as a number of others.
His Students
Students of knowledge flocked to him because of his abundant learning, merit, and wide-ranging knowledge of many disciplines. Among them were:
- Shaykh Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Asʿad ibn Muhammad, his grandson, al-ʿAttari—whose attribution was miswritten in Shadharat al-Dhahab (Gold Nuggets)—