Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ said: “He had the surest memory of all people, the readiest command of knowledge, the quickest reply, and the most extensive grasp of the jurists’ disagreements and how to weigh the various schools. He safeguarded the transmitted reports while favoring sound argument and critical reasoning. He fled Cordoba when the Berbers, after seizing the city, swore to shed his blood (1).

I say: His namesake, the ḥadīth master Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn al-Fakhkhār of Málaga, died in 590 AH.

235 – Ibn al-ʿAjūz ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. Aḥmad al-Kutāmī*

The Muftī of the Maghrib, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. Aḥmad al-Kutāmī (2), a Mālikī from a household of rank and leadership.

Legal opinion in Ceuta revolved around him, and among his descendants were distinguished imams (3).

He kept close company with Abū Muḥammad Ibn Abī Zayd and studied under al-Aṣīlī.

Those who transmitted from him include Qāsim b. Muḥammad al-Maʾmūnī, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Ibrāhīm b. Yaʿqūb al-Kalāʿī, and the scholars of Ceuta. He was one of the oceans of knowledge.

He died in 418 AH—or shortly thereafter.

His son ʿAbd al-Raḥmān died in 449 AH.

From his lineage emerged eminent imams in the Maghrib.