Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad ibn Bishr ibn Garsiyyah al-Qurṭubī, the Mālikī jurist, known as Ibn al-Ḥaṣṣār, and also referred to as the client of Banū Fuṭays.

He pursued legal studies under Abū ʿUmar al-Ishbīlī.
He transmitted hadith from his father and from the Imām Abū Muḥammad al-Aṣīlī.
He was counted among the exceptionally sharp-witted and wide-ranging scholars.

Ibn Ḥayyān said, “No one in his era equalled him, and it was through him that Muḥammad ibn ʿAttāb acquired his fiqh; Ibn ʿAttāb used to pride himself on that.” (1)

I (the author) add: The governor of Córdoba, ʿAlī ibn Ḥammūd al-Ḥasanī, appointed him to the judiciary in 407 AH, and he conducted himself admirably. Later he served as judge and preacher for al-Qāsim ibn Ḥammūd, until al-Muʿtamid removed him for certain reasons in 419 AH. (2)

Ibn Bashkuwāl (3) reported: Ibn ʿAttāb narrated to us from his father, who said:

“I used to see the judge Ibn Bishr in my dreams in his familiar appearance. I would greet him, fully aware that he was deceased, and he would say, ‘I have come to goodness and ease after hardship.’ (4)

I would then speak to him about the superiority of knowledge, and he would reply, ‘Not that knowledge, not that knowledge,’ pointing to the juridical disputations—indicating that what had truly benefited him was knowledge of the Qurʾān and hadith.”

Ibn Ḥazm said, “Never did I meet anyone more fair-minded in debate than Ibn Bishr. Among all those I encountered he was the most learned in Mālik’s school, while also being strong in language and grammar and endowed with a precise, penetrating understanding.”