Abū al-Shaykh al-Iṣfahānī, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar b. Ḥayyān (274–end of Muḥarram 369/887–27 August 979) was a distinguished traditionist and historian from Iṣfahān. He was also called al-Ḥayyānī because of his great-grandfather (see above) (al-Samʿānī, al-Ansāb, 4/322). Yet other writers called him Ibn al-Ḥabbān (al-Mundhirī, 1/539), but this is a misreading of Ibn Ḥayyān.

Abū al-Shaykh was born and brought up in a family of scholars who were all thoroughly versed in the science of ḥadīth. After his early education in …