a Mālikī, nicknamed al-Naṣrī—after the Naṣriyya quarter—​a merchant and frequent sea-traveler.

Ghayth ibn ʿAlī relates: “He told me, ‘I was born in 421 AH and began listening to hadith in 427.’”

Among those from whom he received transmission were: Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣaqr; Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sawwāq; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAlī al-Azajī; Abū Ṭālib ibn Ghaylān; Abū Muḥammad al-Khallāl; and many others.

In Egypt he studied with Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ṭaffāl and Abū al-Qāsim al-Fārisī;
In Damascus, with Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Salwān;
At al-Raḥba, with ʿUbayd Allah ibn Aḥmad al-Raqqī and several more.

He penned most of his own works in his own hand.

Those who narrated from him include al-Khaṭīb—his teacher—Abū al-Suʿūd al-Mujallī, Ismāʿīl ibn al-Samarqandī, Abū al-Fatḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, the jurist Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad al-Razzāz, Ibn Nāṣir, Ibn al-Zāghūnī, Ibn al-Baṭṭī, and many others.

When the ḥāfiẓ Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad was asked about him, he replied, “A venerable, upright shaykh—trustworthy.”

Abū ʿĀmir al-ʿAbdarī said, “He was among the finest and most dependable men I have ever encountered.”

Abū ʿAlī ibn Sukkara observed, “He was learned, distinguished, intelligent, and reliable; he possessed the autograph copy of Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb’s History of Baghdad, which the author had given him personally.”

Al-Samʿānī adds: “He was the one who brought al-Khaṭīb to ʿIrāq, so al-Khaṭīb presented him with his History in his own handwriting.” (1)