thanking Him for His guidance, and I ask Him for more of His bounty. Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī mentioned him in "al-Tārīkh" (10/291-292) through the narration of a group of reliable ḥadīth preservers about him, and he narrated from al-Dāraqutnī who said: "A trustworthy Baghdādī." He died in the year 268. Among those who narrated from him was Abū Bakr al-Khallāl, who said: "He was a man of great stature, and he had a strong bond with Abū ʿAbd Allāh. He said to me: When I entered upon Abū ʿAbd Allāh, he would say to me: I confide in you what I do not confide to my own son or anyone else. So I would say to him: You have from me what al-ʿAbbās said to his son ʿAbd Allāh: ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb honors you and gives you precedence, so do not disclose his secret. If I die, it is gone, and if I live, I will not report it from you, O Abū ʿAbd Allāh! He would then disclose many things to him. He had a large section from Abū ʿAbd Allāh, containing major issues that no one else brought, fully detailed." Then he recounted some issues from him. As for ʿAmmār ibn ʿUthmān al-Ḥalabī, he was a Basran who was also narrated from by Ḥumayd ibn al-Rabīʿ and the people of Iraq, as mentioned in "Thiqāt Ibn Ḥibbān" (8/518); and he was also deemed trustworthy by Imām Aḥmad, as seen in the isnād of the ḥadīth. It appears that these are among the benefits that al-Ḥasan ibn Thawāb received from Imām Aḥmad, and perhaps they are in the section that Abū Bakr al-Khallāl referred to. In sum, this isnād is authentic as is evident from this investigation, and it is one of the treasures of this book by the grace of Allāh; for al-Mundhirī in "al-Targhīb" hinted at its weakening by introducing it with his saying "and it was narrated from Anas..." and said: "It was narrated by Ibn Abī al-Dunyā and al-Bayhaqī, and it is in the 'Musnad' and 'Sunan al-Nasāʾī' from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah with its meaning."