of al-Haytham ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith—the venerable shaykh and imām, a long-lived preacher, head of the Ḥanbalīs, Abū Muḥammad al-Tamīmī al-Baghdādī.
He was born in 400 AH; some say 401 AH (1).
He presented his Qurʾānic recitation to Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥammāmī and later taught portions of the seven canonical readings himself.
Among those from whom he heard ḥadīth were: his father; Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Mutayyim (2); Abū ʿUmar ibn Mahdī; Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Bishrān; al-Ḥammāmī; Ibn al-Faḍl al-Qaṭṭān; and several others.
A large company transmitted from him, including: Abū ʿĀmir Muḥammad ibn Saʿdūn al-ʿAbdarī; Ibn Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī; Abū ʿAlī ibn Sukkara; Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad al-Taymī; ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Anmāṭī; Abū Saʿd ibn al-Baghdādī; Hibat Allāh ibn Ṭāwūs; Muḥammad ibn Nāṣir; Abū al-Fath Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Kātib; Abū al-Karam al-Mubārak ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shahrazūrī; Abū Bakr ibn al-Zughwānī; Hibat Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Ḥaffār; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Ḥarrānī; Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAlī ibn Shahrīyār; the jurist Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Rustamī; Abū al-Fath ibn al-Baṭṭī; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad al-Shīrāzī al-Adamī; Abū al-Muṭahhar al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl al-Ṣaydalanī; Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṣaydalanī; Rajāʾ ibn Ḥāmid al-Maʿdānī; and many others.
Al-Samʿānī said: “He was the jurist of the Ḥanbalīs and their imām; he studied the Qurʾān and jurisprudence.”