—ʿAbd Allah ibn Yusuf al-Isbahani—[who said]: Abu Saʿid Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ziyad al-Basri informed me: ʿAbd Allah ibn Ayyub al-Mukharrimi narrated to us: Sufyan ibn ʿUyaynah narrated from ʿAbd Allah ibn Abi Najih, from Mujahid, from Umm Mubashshir, who attributed it to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said: … and he mentioned it.
I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Sufyan and those above him are well-known trustworthy narrators among those used by both al-Bukhari and Muslim, and need no introduction. It is only those below them who require comment, so I say:
- ʿAbd Allah ibn Ayyub al-Mukharrimi: Ibn Abi Hatim said (2/2/11):
“He narrated from Sufyan ibn ʿUyaynah, and … I heard from him alongside my father, and he was truthful.”
Ibn Hibban included him in al-Thiqat (8/362), stating that he died after 250 AH. He also identified him as al-Baghdadi, but al-Khatib did not include him in his history.
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Abu Saʿid Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ziyad al-Basri: He was the well-known trustworthy hadith master known as Ibn al-Aʿrabi. His biography appears in Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubalaʾ, and other works. The al-Zahiriyyah Library holds some of his booklets and books, the most important of them being al-Muʿjam.
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Abu Muhammad ʿAbd Allah ibn Yusuf al-Isbahani, al-Bayhaqi’s teacher: Al-Dhahabi wrote his biography in al-Siyar (17/239), describing him as:
“the upright imam and hadith scholar.”
He also said:
“Al-Bayhaqi narrated extensively from him.”
And in his biography in Tarikh al-Islam (28/187), he said:
“He accompanied Abu Saʿid ibn al-Aʿrabi and narrated extensively from him … The hadith masters made selections from him and travelled to him.”