Khalaf ibn al-Qasim Ibn al-Dabbagh

Abu al-Qasim Khalaf b. al-Qasim b. Sahl b. Muhammad b. Yunus al-Azdi, known as Ibn al-Dabbagh (325–393 AH), was the hadith scholar of al-Andalus in his time and the teacher from whom Ibn 'Abd al-Barr transmitted most. ¹

He studied in his own city, then travelled East in 345 AH and moved about there for some fifteen years, hearing in Egypt, Syria and Mecca. ¹

Al-Humaydi reports that Ibn 'Abd al-Barr transmitted from him abundantly and ranked none of his teachers above him, describing him as his own teacher and the teacher of his teachers such as Abu al-Walid Ibn al-Faradi, who had written from about three hundred men in the East. ¹ He said Khalaf was among the most knowledgeable of people about the narrators of hadith, the most diligent in writing them down and gathering them, and in history and Qur'an commentary, though without insight into juristic opinion (ra'y) — "the hadith scholar of al-Andalus in his time". ¹