the Damascene man of letters—known as Ibn al-Ṭaḥḥān—
transmitted reports from Khaythama al-Ṭarābulusī, the poet Abū al-Ṭayyib al-Mutanabbī, and the grammarian Abū al-Qāsim al-Zajjājī.
Related from him were Abū Saʿd al-Sammān, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥadhlam, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Kattānī, ʿAlī ibn Abī al-ʿAlāʾ al-Miṣṣīṣī, and others.
He used to say, “I would doze off in the circle of Khaythama ibn Sulaymān; my father would rouse me, and I would behold Khaythama—broad-headed, with large ears and nose.”
Al-Kattānī said, “He was born in Shawwāl of the year 328 AH and died in 417 AH. People accused him of Shiʿite leanings, but he swore to us that he was free of that, that he belonged to the clientele of Yazīd—descending from Suteita, Yazīd’s freedwoman—and that he had even visited Yazīd’s grave. ⦗1⦘ He possessed fine autograph manuscripts.”
223 – Ibn Abī al-Shawārib, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh
Chief Judge, Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, son of the ḥadith scholar Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Shawārib al-Umawī.
He took office after Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Akfanī.
Al-Khaṭīb said, “He was chaste, upright, and eminent. ⦗2⦘”
He received ḥadith from Ibn Qāniʿ, Abī