Next come seven master ḥadīth scholars who, in their own generation, excelled in authorship and whose works have proved enormously beneficial:

• Abū al-Ḥasan al-Dāraquṭnī — he died in Baghdad in Dhū al-Qaʿdah 385 AH; he had been born there in 306 AH.

• al-Ḥākim Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Naysābūrī — he died in Ṣafar 405 AH and was born in the same city, Nīshāpūr, in Rabīʿ al-Awwal 321 AH.

• Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ghanī ibn Saʿīd, the ḥadīth master of Egypt — born in Dhū al-Qaʿdah 332 AH; he died in Egypt in Ṣafar 409 AH.

• Abū Nuʿaym Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Iṣfahānī — born in 334 AH; he passed away in Ṣafar 430 AH in Iṣfahān.

• After them comes Abū ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, the ḥadīth master of the Maghrib — born in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir 368 AH; he died at Shāṭiba in that same month, 463 AH.

• Then Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī — born in 384 AH; he died in Nīshāpūr in Jumādā al-Ūlā 458 AH.

• And finally Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī — born in Jumādā al-Ākhirah 392 AH; he died in Baghdad in Dhū al-Ḥijjah 463 AH.

May Allah have mercy upon them all, and Allah knows best.