Abū al-Ḥārith, al-Layth b. Khālid al-Baghdādī (d. 240/854), was one of the two transmitters of the Qurʾānic reading (qirāʾa) of al-Kisāʾī, the latter being one of the ‘Seven Readers’ (al-qurrāʾ al-sabʿa) whose readings of the Qurʾān are considered authoritative. Certain experts in qirāʾa, such as Aḥmad b. al-Ḥasan al-Baṭṭī, Aḥmad b. Naṣr al-Shadhāʾī and al-Ahwāzī, confused him with a contemporaneous traditionist, Abū Bakr al-Layth b. Khālid al-Marwazī, who was one of Mālik's pupils (see al-Khaṭīb, Sharaf, 69; al-Dhahabī, Maʿrifa, 1/173; Ibn al-Jazarī, Ghāya, 2/34). No detaile…