It is said that he was born in 441 AH.

Ibn al-Najjar remarks: “He pursued learning, was granted keen understanding, listened to a vast number of narrations, travelled, wrote, and collected material. He was described as possessing remarkable memorization and insight, and as having an excellent character. His handwriting, however, was poor, and in later life his hearing grew weak.

He heard hadith from Abū ʿUmar al-Malīḥī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Fārisī, Abū Maʿmar Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Bānki, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Manda and his brother Abū ʿAmr, Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Busrī, and their peers.

Among those who narrated from him were the judge Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm, the leading Ḥanbalī authority, Hibat Allāh ibn al-Saqaṭī, and others. He later took up residence in Isfahan.

Al-Silafī says: “I heard the ḥāfiẓ Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad declare, ‘Abū al-Khayr al-Harawī is a meticulous ḥāfiẓ of hadith.’” (1)

Abū Mūsā al-Madīnī states in his Muʿjam: “The ḥāfiẓ and ascetic ʿAbd Allāh ibn Marzūq al-Harawī narrated to us—he was hard of hearing—and he died in Jumādā al-Ākhirah of 507 AH.”

Ibn Abī al-Khayr relates in his book, on the authority of Ibn Kulayb: Abū Khāzim Muḥammad ibn al-Farrāʾ, Ṭalḥah ibn Aḥmad al-ʿĀqūlī, and ʿAlī ibn al-Zāghūnī, acting with permission, told us:

“Abū al-Khayr ʿAbd Allāh ibn Marzūq dictated to us in person in the year (472). ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Ṭuraythīthī transmitted it to us, Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Khaffāf … and he cited a hadith.”