al-Bazzār, Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. ʿAmr b. ʿAbd al-Khāliq al-ʿAtakī (d. 292/905), traditionist of Baṣra and one of the earliest compilers of musnadḥadīth collections. Ibn Nāṣir al-Dīn gives the meaning of the word ‘bazzār’, as used by the people of Baghdad, as a presser of linseed oil (1/484). He was called ʿAtakī because he belonged to the ʿAtīk clan, a subdivision of the Azd tribe (al-Samʿānī, 9/227). Al-Dhahabī notes 210/825 as his year of birth (Siyar, 13/555).

Al-Bazzār was born at one of the most important junctures in the history of the compilation of ḥadīth materials, that is, in the p…