Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Salt

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Salt (314 or 317–405 AH / 926 or 930–1015 CE) was a Qurayshi hadith transmitter and musnid based in Baghdad, commonly known by the epithet al-Mujabbir Siyar Aalam al-Nubala+1.

Lineage and Early Life

His full genealogy is Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Musa ibn al-Qasim ibn al-Salt ibn al-Harith ibn Malik ibn Sa'd ibn Qays ibn Abd ibn Shurahbil ibn Hashim ibn Abd Manaf ibn Abd al-Dar ibn Qusayy al-Qurashi al-Abdari al-Baghdadi al-Jara'ihi al-Mujabbir Siyar Aalam al-Nubala+1. He resided on the eastern side of Baghdad Tarikh Baghdad. Sources record two accounts of his birth: according to Abu al-Fath Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Misri, he was born in 314 AH, whereas Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Ridwan al-Saydalani reported that he was born in 317 AH Tarikh Baghdad.

Hadith Transmission and Critical Standing

He received hadith from several prominent tenth-century scholars, including Ibrahim ibn Abd al-Samad al-Hashimi, al-Husayn ibn Ismail al-Mahamili, Abu Bakr ibn al-Anbari, Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Suli, and Ismail ibn Muhammad al-Saffar Tarikh Baghdad. Among those who transmitted from him were Abu al-Qasim al-Azhari, Hamza ibn Muhammad al-Daqqaq, Abd al-Baqi al-Ansari, and Malik ibn Ahmad al-Banyasi, the last of whom served as the final direct narrator from him Siyar Aalam al-Nubala+1.

Scholars differed regarding his reliability as a transmitter. Abu Bakr al-Barqani declared him and his brother weak in hadith Tarikh Baghdad+1. Conversely, Abu Dhar al-Harawi considered their narrations acceptable provided they narrated directly from their written original texts Lisan al-Mizan. Hamza ibn Muhammad al-Daqqaq described him as a pious and religious elder, noting that scholars studied Ismail al-Qadi's legal work Ahkam al-Quran through his transmission from al-Saffar Tarikh Baghdad.

A number of his transmissions faced scrutiny from peers. When certain students urged him to transmit Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam's al-Amthal through a chain via Da'laj, Hamza al-Daqqaq confronted him and pointed out that the transmission was ungrounded, leading Ibn al-Salt to refrain from transmitting it Tarikh Baghdad. Furthermore, Abu al-Hasan ibn al-Susanjardi examined al-Saffar's original manuscript of Ahkam al-Quran and found that Ibn al-Salt's verified audition extended only up to Surah al-Talaq, despite reports that he transmitted the work in full Tarikh Baghdad. Abd al-Aziz al-Azaji also criticized his attribution of certain works of Ibn Abi al-Dunya to al-Husayn ibn Safwan al-Bardha'i, noting that those texts were not part of al-Bardha'i's transmission Tarikh Baghdad.

Death

Ibn al-Salt died on Wednesday, with five nights remaining in Rajab 405 AH (January 1015 CE), at the age of ninety-one according to his earliest recorded birth year Siyar Aalam al-Nubala+1. He was buried at the cemetery of Bab Harb in Baghdad Tarikh Baghdad.