al-Ḥājj; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mughīth, the community’s chief qāḍī; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khalaf al-Fihri; Abū Bakr ibn Talḥah al-Muḥāribī; and Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Niʿmah—one of the forefathers of our shaykh, Abū al-Walīd, the foremost Mālikī scholar in Damascus.
362 – al-Farāwī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl ibn Aḥmad
The shaykh, the imām, jurist and mufti; the foremost ḥadith transmitter of Khurasan and jurist of the Sacred Precinct: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-ʿAbbās al-Ṣāʿidī, al-Farāwī ⦗1⦘, of Nishapur, a Shāfiʿī.
He was born—approximately—in 441 AH, for Shaykh al-Islām Abū ʿUthmān al-Ṣābūnī granted him an authorization in that very year.
He heard the text of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim from Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Ghāfir ibn Muḥammad,
(*) Tabyin kadhib al-muftari, p. 322; al-Muntazam, 10/65; Muʿjam al-buldan, 4/245; al-Kamil fi al-tarikh, 11/46; Tabaqat Ibn al-Salah, 20/1; Wafayat al-aʿyan, 4/290-291; Tarikh al-Islam, 4: 289/1-290/1; Duwal al-Islam, 2/52; al-Ibar, 4/83; al-Wafi bi-l-wafayat, 4/423; Mirat al-zaman, 8/97-98; Tabaqat al-Subki, 6/166-170; Tabaqat al-Isnawi, 2/276; al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya, 12/211; Wafayat Ibn Qunfudh, 276; Tabaqat al-shafiʿiyya by Ibn Qadi Shuhba, 1/352; Shadharat al-dhahab, 96; Idah al-maknun, 2/429; Hadiyyat al-ʿarifin, 2/87; Majmaʿ al-adab, 4/3/484-485.
(1) The initial consonant (fa) is pronounced with ḍammah, as in the base manuscript, al-Ansab, al-Lubab, Lub al-lubab, and Wafayat al-aʿyan; Yaqut, however, vocalises it with fatḥah, and so does the author in al-Mushtabah, p. 500. Ibn Nasir al-Din states in Tawdih al-Mushtabah, 2/193, that Ibn al-Samʿani and others affirm the ḍammah, while still others prefer the fatḥah—the latter being more common according to al-Sadr al-Hasan b. Muhammad al-Bakri. Tabsir al-muntabih, 3/1100, records the same divergence; Ibn Nuqtah observes that the fatḥah is the more prevalent and famous reading. This nisba refers to Farawah, a town on the Khurasan frontier toward Khwarazm, built by ʿAbd Allah b. Tahir during the caliphate of al-Maʾmun, when he was governor of Khurasan.