Abū ʿAwāna, Yaʿqūb b. Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Yazīd al-Isfarāyinī (after 230/845–316/928) was a Shāfiʿī muḥaddith (traditionist) and faqīh (jurist). In order to hear and learn ḥadīth, he travelled to different parts of Iran, Iraq, Ḥijāz, Yemen, Egypt and Syria (Abū ʿAwāna, 1/344, 4/38, ff.; al-Samʿānī, 1/223–224; al-Dhahabī, Siyar, 14/417–419). Abū ʿAwāna apparently returned to Isfarāyin after his time in Egypt (see Ibn Khallikān, 6/394).

In his Musnad, Abū ʿAwāna mentions his shaykhs and teachers such as his father, Isḥāq b. Ibrāhīm, as well as Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj a…