He was born in 368 AH, in the month of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir; another report places his birth in Jumādā al-Ūlā, so the accounts differ as to the exact month.

He began seeking knowledge after 390 AH. He met the leading scholars of the age, lived a long life, possessed elevated chains of transmission, and students thronged around him. He collected and composed works, authenticated and declared narrations weak, his books travelled far and wide, and the scholars of his day bowed to his learning.

He was unable to hear directly from his father, the imām Abū Muḥammad (1), for the latter had died earlier, in 380 AH. The father had been a jurist, devout worshipper who spent the nights in prayer, lived fifty years, studied law under al-Tujībī (2), and heard ḥadith from Aḥmad ibn Muṭarrif and from the historian Abū ʿUmar ibn Ḥazm.

Yes, and his son—the subject of this entry, Abū ʿUmar—heard from Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Muʾmin the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd, which the latter reported from Ibn Dāsah (3). The same teacher also narrated to him through Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣaffār, conveyed Abū Dāwūd’s work on Abrogation (al-Nāsikh wa’l-Mansūkh) via Abū Bakr al-Najād, and handed him the Musnad of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in his transmission from al-Qaṭīʿī (4).

Furthermore, he heard from the long-lived Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ḍayfūn (5) the narrations of al-Zaʿfarānī, which the latter had received from Ibn al-Aʿrābī on his authority. He read to him the Tafsīr of Muḥammad ibn Sanjar, spanning several volumes, and he read before Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Wārith