He was born in Sijistān in 410 AH.

He studied under ʿAlī ibn Bushrā al-Laythī, the ḥāfiẓ, from whom he received a sizeable portion of ḥadith; in Herat he heard from ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Muḥammad al-Khaṭṭābī; and in Ghazna from al-Khalīl ibn Abī Yaʿlā and a number of others. He even carried his son ʿAbd al-Awwal on his back from Herat to Būshanj—a single day’s journey—so that the two of them could hear al-Ṣaḥīḥ (1) from Jamāl al-Islām al-Dāʾūdī.

Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī said: “He is sound and upright, keen to attend audition sessions, and he granted me authorization for his narrations.” He then noted his birth and added: “He died at Malīn, near Herat, on Monday, 12 Shawwāl 512 AH, at the age of one hundred and two (2).”

Those who also died that year were: the Commander of the Faithful al-Mustazhir Billāh, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn al-Muqtadī Billāh ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Qāʾim al-ʿAbbāsī (3), aged forty-two, whose caliphate had lasted twenty-five years; the Mufti of Bukhara, Shams al-Aʾimma al-Jābirī; Nūr al-Hudā al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Zaynabī (4); the eminent scholar Abū al-Qāsim Salmān ibn Nāṣir al-Anṣārī of Nishapur (5), the uṣūlī and companion of Imām al-Ḥaramayn; the centenarian Abū al-ʿAlāʾ ʿUbayd ibn Muḥammad al-Qushayrī (6); the Ashʿarī theologian Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAtīq ibn Abī Kuddiyya al-Qayrawānī, who died in Baghdad at a very advanced age (7); and the ḥāfiẓ Maḥmūd ibn Naṣr al-Iṣfahānī al-Ṣabbāgh, also in Baghdad.