Sulaymān ibn Khalaf ibn Saʿd (1) ibn Ayyūb ibn Wārith al-Tujībī, the Andalusian, from Córdoba, better known as al-Bājī al-Dhahabī, was a prolific author.
His family originally came from the city of Batalyaws (2). When his grandfather moved to Bāja (3)—a small town near Seville—the family nisbah became attached to that place. He is therefore not from the other Bāja located in Ifrīqiya (4), the hometown of the ḥāfiẓ Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Bājī and his unrivalled son, the ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Bājī, both of whom were likewise Andalusian scholars.
Abū al-Walīd was born in 403 AH.
He studied with Yūnus ibn Mughīth, Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl, and Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Wārith.
In 426 AH he set out on his travels, performed the pilgrimage, and had he extended the journey to Iraq—
p. 130; Mirat al-jinan 3/108; al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya 12/122-123; Qudat al-Nabahi, p. 95; al-Dibaj al-mudhahhab 1/377-385; Wafayat Ibn Qunfudh, p. 255; Tabsir al-muntabih 1/117; al-Nujum al-zahira 5/114; Tabaqat al-huffaz 440-441; Tabaqat al-mufassirin (al-Suyuti), p. 14; Tabaqat al-mufassirin (al-Dawudi) 1/202-207; Nafh al-tib 2/67-85; Kashf al-zunun 19-20, 419; Shadharat al-dhahab 3/344-345; Rawdat al-janat, p. 322; Idah al-maknun 1/48, 74; Hadiyat al-arifin 1/397; al-Risala al-mustatrefa, p. 207; Tahdhib Ibn Asakir 6/250-252.
(1) Tartib al-madarik 4/802 records the name as Ibn Sa‘dun, whereas Tadhkirat al-huffaz 3/1178 gives Ibn Sa‘id.
(2) Bataliyaws (with fathah on b and t, a silent lam, an open ya, and an unpointed sin); only Yaqut puts a dammah on the ya. It was a major Andalusian city belonging to the district of Marda, on the Ana River west of Cordoba.
(3) One of the oldest cities of al-Andalus; today it is in Portugal, about 140 km south-east of Lisbon.
(4) As Ibn ‘Asakir reports. The author will quote his words at the end of the entry.