Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (19/70)

Abu al-Nadr al-Fami said: “Al-ʿUmayri set himself apart from the men of his age by his knowledge, his asceticism, his exactitude in transmission, his eagerness to teach hadith, his detachment from this world (1), his disdain for its fleeting spoils, and his focus on the Hereafter.

Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Daqqaq remarked, “Al-ʿUmayri has no equal in Khurasan—let alone in Herat!”

In his Risala he also wrote: “Among all my teachers I have never seen anyone like the meticulous, ascetic Imam, Abu ʿAbd Allah al-ʿUmayri.”

Another scholar said: “He was an imam in jurisprudence, a model to emulate, and possessed a vast repertoire of hadith.”

Al-Samʿani stated: “He performed the pilgrimage, traveled to Yemen, and in Mecca he heard hadith from Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Ṣanʿānī; in Nīshāpūr from al-Ḥīrī and al-Ṣayrafī; in Baghdad from Ibn Shādhān, al-Ḥurfi, and Ibn Dust; and in Herat from Yaḥyā ibn ʿAmmār and Abū Yaʿqūb al-Qarrāb.”

Those who transmitted from him include Ibn Ṭāhir, al-Muʾtaman, Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAlī al-Hamadhānī, Abū al-Waqt, ʿAlī ibn Ḥamza, Abu al-Nadr al-Fami (2), and al-Junayd al-Qāʾinī (3).

(1) Uyun al-Tawarikh, vol. 13, p. 57. (2) His full name is Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd al-Jabbar. (3) Al-Samani vocalizes the nisba with a fatha on both the qaf and the ya. Yaqut writes that Qayin is spelled with a ya (y) dotted below directly after the alif and ends with a nun. Ibn al-Athir notes that al-Qayini follows the same pattern as al-Qayimi, except that the final mim is replaced by a nun; this implies that the ya carries a kasra.

قَالَ أَبُو النَّضْرِ الفَامِي: تَوحَّد العُميْرِي عَنْ أَبْنَاء زَمَانه بِالعِلْمِ وَالزُّهْد وَالإِتْقَان فِي الرِّوَايَة، وَالرَّغبَة فِي التَّحْدِيْث، وَالتَّجَرُّدِ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا (١) ، وَالإِعرَاضِ عَنْ حُطَامِهَا، وَالإِقبالِ عَلَى الآخِرَة. وَقَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ اللهِ الدَّقَّاق: العميْرِي لَيْسَ لَهُ نَظيرٌ بِخُرَاسَانَ فَكَيْفَ بِهَرَاةَ! وَقَالَ فِي (رِسَالته) :لَمْ أَرَ فِي شُيُوخِي كَالإِمَام المُتْقِنِ الزَّاهِد أَبِي عَبْدِ اللهِ العُمَيْرِي. وَقَالَ آخر: كَانَ إِمَاماً فِي الفِقْه، قُدْوَةً، وَاسِعَ الرِّوَايَة. وَقَالَ السَّمْعَانِيّ: حَجَّ وَدَخَلَ اليَمَن، وَسَمِعَ بِمَكَّةَ مِنْ: مُحَمَّدِ بنِ الحُسَيْنِ الصَّنْعَانِيّ، وَسَمِعَ بِنَيْسَابُوْرَ مِنَ: الحِيْرِيّ، وَالصَّيْرَفِيّ، وَبِبَغْدَادَ مِنِ: ابْنِ شَاذَان، وَالحُرْفِي، وَابْن دُوسْت، وَبِهرَاة مِنْ: يَحْيَى بنِ عَمَّارٍ، وَأَبِي يَعْقُوْبَ القَرَّاب. حَدَّثَ عَنْهُ: ابْنُ طَاهِر، وَالمُؤْتَمَنُ، وَمُحَمَّدُ بنُ أَبِي عَلِيٍّ الهَمَذَانِيّ، وَأَبُو الوَقْتِ، وَعَلِيُّ بنُ حَمْزَةَ، وَأَبُو النَّضْرِ الفَامِي (٢) ، وَالجُنَيْدُ القَاينِي (٣) .

(١) " عيون التواريخ ": ١٣ / ٥٧. (٢) واسمه عبد الرحمن بن عبد الجبار. (٣) ضبطه السمعاني بفتح القاف والياء، وقال ياقوت: قاين: بعد الالف ياء مثناة من تحت، وآخره نون، وذكر ابن الأثير أن " القايني " مثل ما قبله - أي: القايمي - إلا أنه عوض الميم نون، ومقتضى هذا أن تكون الياء مكسورة.