Abū Ḥāmid al-Isfarāyinī, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad (344–406/955–1016), was a renowned Shāfiʿī jurist. It would appear from the sources that Abū Ḥāmid was born in Isfarāyin, and in his adolescence he studied under certain shaykhs there, such as Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbdak al-Shaʿrānī. He went to Baghdad to continue his education in 364/975, where he studied Shāfiʿī jurisprudence with Abū al-Ḥasan b. al-Marzubān and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Dārakī. He also learnt ḥadīths from Abū al-Ḥasan al-Dāraquṭnī, Abū Bakr al-Ismāʿīlī and Ibn ʿAdī al-Jurjānī (al-Khaṭīb, 4/368–369; al-…