ʿAffān the Umayyad—also styled al-ʿUthmānī, al-Dībājī, and al-Iskandarānī—the compiler of those fawāʾid (select hadith gleanings) that we transmit.

He heard hadith from his own father; Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḥḥām; Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāzī; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Walīd al-Ṭurṭūshī (1); Abū al-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Khalaf, the Qurʾān-reciter; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥammūd; and several others.

As far as I know, he never undertook study-journeys.

Those who narrated from him include the hadith master ʿAbd al-Ghanī, the hadith master ʿAlī ibn al-Mufaḍḍal, the hadith master ʿAbd al-Qādir, Ḥammād al-Ḥarrānī, Jaʿfar ibn ʿAlī al-Hamadhānī, and others.

In his own day he was known as Ibn Abī al-Yābis (2).

Ibn al-Mufaḍḍal said: “He possessed expertise in a number of disciplines. He was born in 484 AH and died in Shawwāl of 572 AH.”

I (the author) say: He was trustworthy in himself.

Ḥammād al-Ḥarrānī reported that Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī accused al-ʿUthmānī of fabrication. Yet a group of notable Alexandrians told me that al-ʿUthmānī’s auditions were sound and that he was reliable, firmly grounded, pious, and chaste; he used to teach grammar, linguistics, and hadith. I also heard several people say that he would remark, “There will be a reckoning between me and al-Silafī before Allah.” (3)

Al-Abbār said: “Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Tujībī narrated extensively from Abū al-Ḥajjāj al-Thaghrī, and he said:”