ibn Yazīd al-Fāmī; ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Mihrūyah, both of them from Qazwīn; Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad al-Qaṭṭān; Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Thaqafī; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥamdān al-Jallāb and Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd, the two of them from Hamadhān; Abū Bakr ibn al-Sunnī al-Dīnawarī; Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī; and a number of others.
Those who transmitted from him include Abū Sahl ibn Zīrak, Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā, ʿAlī ibn al-Qāsim al-Khayyāṭ—the Qurʾān reciter—Abū Manṣūr ibn al-Muḥtasib, and others besides them.
He was born in Qazwīn, reared in Hamadhān, and spent most of his life in Rayy.
He was a leading authority in literature, thoroughly versed in the jurisprudence of Mālik (1), a capable debater and theologian following the path of the people of truth. In grammar he adopted the Kūfan school, uniting rigorous scholarship with the refinement expected of accomplished writers and poets.
He composed several works (2) and epistles (3), and a number of eminent scholars were trained by him.
He was fiercely loyal to the family of al-ʿAmīd, and for that reason the Ṣāḥib ibn ʿAbbād disliked him (4).