180 — al-Anbārī, Abū Manṣūr ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī*

A leading preacher, imam, and Qur’an reciter: Abū Manṣūr ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Anbārī, later known as al-Baghdādī.

He learned the variant Qur’anic readings from Abū ʿAlī al-Sharmaqānī, and I believe he was that teacher’s last surviving pupil. He also heard hadith from Ibn Ghaylān, Abū Isḥāq al-Barmakī, and others.

He studied jurisprudence under Abū Yaʿlā until he excelled in the school of Aḥmad. Devout and upright, eloquent of speech and pleasant in recitation, he was counted among the eminent scholars of his day. He issued legal opinions, taught, and preached in the Qasr Mosque, the Manṣūr Mosque, and the Mahdī Mosque. He heard a large body of narrations and copied many fascicles.

Those who transmitted from him include Abūʾl-Barakāt ibn al-Saqaṭī, ʿAbd al-Khāliq al-Yūsufī, Abū Ṭālib ibn Khadir, and others.

He was born in 425 AH and died in Jumādā al-Ākhira 507 AH. Crowds accompanied his funeral procession, thronging around him—may Allah Most High have mercy on him (1).

I do not recall anyone who recited the variant readings to him.