a native of Raqqa, a jurist, a Shafi‘i, and a Sufi.
Born: 459 AH.
He heard hadith from Rizqallāh al-Tamimi, ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Shiḥi, Muḥammad ibn Bakrān al-Shami, al-Ḥumaydi, and a number of others.
In 484 AH the preacher Abū al-Qāsim Yaḥyā ibn Ṭāhir ibn Muḥammad—son of the foremost orator ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Nubāta—arrived as an envoy to the vizier Niẓām al-Mulk. He stated: “The Collection of Sermons (Dīwān al-Khuṭab) is my audition from my father, who had it from my grandfather,” yet he had brought no copy with him. Al-Ghanawī therefore read it aloud to him from a newly written manuscript that bore no certificate of audition.
He studied jurisprudence with al-Ghazālī and Abū Bakr al-Shāshī, and he wrote extensively.
Ibn al-Jawzī (1) said: “I saw him; he was dignified, taciturn, and endowed with composure (2) and humility.”
I add: those who transmitted from him include al-Samʿānī, Abū al-Yumn al-Kindī, Abū Ḥafṣ ibn Ṭabrazad, and others.
He died in Baghdad, in Dhū al-Ḥijjah 543 AH.
He was a truthful narrator.