- Ibn Sirāj — ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Sirāj ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Umawī
The shaykh, the imām, the ḥadith scholar, the philologist, the consummate vizier, the proof of the Arabs: Abū Marwān ʿAbd al-Malik, son of the Chief Judge Abū al-Qāsim Sirāj ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Sirāj al-Umawī, their client, of Córdoba, an undisputed master of the Arabic language.
He was born in 404 AH, in the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, as recorded by Abū ʿAlī al-Ghassānī.
He transmitted ḥadith from: his father; Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Iflīlī (1); Yūnus ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mughīth; Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib al-Qaysī; Abū ʿAmr al-Ṣafāqisī; and others.
Those who narrated from him include: Abū ʿAlī ibn Sukkara; Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥājj; his son, the ḥadith scholar Abū al-Ḥasan Sirāj; and a number of others.
Ibn Sukkara said, “Of all the people I have met, he is the most knowledgeable in literature and in the meanings of the Qurʾān and ḥadith.”
Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ remarked, “The vizier Abū Marwān — the ḥadith master, linguist, and grammarian — was the leading authority of al-Andalus in his discipline during his time, the sharpest of them in the Arabic tongue and the most reliable in transmission. His father, Abū al-Qāsim, was likewise among the foremost scholars….” He then said:
Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Ḥusayn informed me that Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib used to submit some of his works to him and would seek his opinion about them.