His Travels in Pursuit of Knowledge and His Audition of Hadith

From a very young age he devoted himself to seeking knowledge and listening to hadith. In his own city he studied under scholars such as Muhammad ibn Salam, Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Bikandi, ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Misandi, Ibn al-Ashʿath, and others. He then set out for the pilgrimage with his mother and his older brother Ahmad in the year 210 AH; after completing the rites, his brother returned home with their mother while he remained behind to continue his studies.

In Mecca he received hadith from al-Humaydi and others, and in Madinah from ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Awisi, Mutarrif ibn ʿAbd Allah, and many more. Thereafter he journeyed to most of the major hadith centers—Khurasan, Syria, Egypt, and the cities of Iraq. He visited Baghdad several times; its scholars gathered around him, acknowledged his merit, and testified to his unrivaled mastery of both transmission (riwāya) and critical analysis (dirāya).

In Balkh he learned from Makki ibn Ibrahim and others; in Marw from ʿAli ibn al-Hasan, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUthman, and others; in Nishapur from Yahya ibn Yahya and others; in Rayy from Ibrahim ibn Musa and others; in Baghdad from Shurayh ibn al-Nuʿman, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and others; in Basra from Abu ʿAsim al-Nabil, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Ansari, and others; in Kufa from Talaq ibn Ghannam, Khallad ibn Yahya, and others; and in Egypt from Saʿid ibn Kathir ibn ʿUfair and others. He heard hadith from countless scholars besides those named here.

He is reported to have said, “I wrote down hadith from…"