and the ḥadith master Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān al-Baṣrī, al-Ḥarāmī (1), better known as al-Ḥarīrī, the author of the Maqāmāt. He was born in the village of al-Mashān, in the district of Basra.
He heard transmission from Abū Tammām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā and from Abū al-Qāsim al-Faḍl al-Qaṣabānī, under whom he completed his training in literature.
Ibn Iftikhār states: Al-Ḥarīrī came to Baghdad and read before ʿAlī ibn Faḍāl al-Mujāshiʿī; he studied jurisprudence with Ibn al-Ṣabbāgh and with Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī, and he studied the laws of inheritance (farāʾiḍ) with al-Khabrī. He then returned to Baghdad in 500 AH, where he narrated a portion of his ḥadith collection along with readings from his Maqāmāt. Ibn al-Khasshāb (2) nevertheless pointed out a few minor slips in them.
= Al-Lubab, pp. 352–353, 360; Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, 10/596; Tabaqat Ibn al-Salah, fol. 74; Inba al-Ruwat, 3/23–27; Wafayat al-Ayan, 4/63–68; Mukhtasar Duwal al-Islam (Ibn al-Abri), 2/30; Al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bashar, 2/235–236; Tarikh al-Islam, 4:225/1–226/2; Duwal al-Islam, 2/43; Al-Ibar, 4/38; Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 4/1257; Tatimmat al-Mukhtasar, 2/47–49; Talkhis Ibn Maktum, p. 194; Uyoun al-Tawarikh, 13/406–414; Mirat al-Jinan, 3/213–221; Mirat al-Zaman, 8/67; Tabaqat al-Subki, 7/266–270; Tabaqat al-Isnawi, 1/429–432; Al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 12/191–192; Wafayat Ibn Qunfudh, 269–270; Tabaqat Ibn Qadi Shuhba, fol. 479; Al-Nujum al-Zahira, 5/235; Bughyat al-Wu‘at, 2/257–259; Miftah al-Saada, 1/223; Maahid al-Tansis, 3/270–277; Kashf al-Zunun, pp. 507–789; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 4/50–53; Khizanat al-Adab, 3/117; Nuzhat al-Jalis, 2/2–5; Al-Falaka wa-l-Mufallakun, 118–119; Rawdat al-Jannat, 527–528; Hadiyat al-Arifin, 1/827; Kunuz al-Ajdad, 282–290; Encyclopaedia of Islam, 7/365–367.
(1) The nisba “al-Harami” derives from a quarter of Basra where the Arab clan Banu Haram had settled; the district was therefore named after them.
(2) This refers to Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Ahmad ibn Ahmad ibn Abdullah ibn Nasr al-Baghdadi, the grammarian and linguist who died in 567 AH; his biography will appear under no. 337 in volume 20.