ibn Khayr ibn ʿUmar ibn Khalīfa al-Lamtūnī, a native of Seville and the leading scholar of al-Andalus.

He was born in 502 AH.

He learned the Qur’anic modes of recitation from Shurayḥ, stayed constantly in his company, and became the most distinguished of his pupils. He also received hadith from him, from Abū Marwān al-Bājī, and from the judge Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī. Later he travelled to Córdoba, where he studied under Abū Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, Abū al-Qāsim Ibn Baqī, Ibn Mughīth, Ibn Abī al-Khiṣāl, and many others, even taking transmission from some of his own peers.

Al-Abbār (1) said: “He transmitted in extraordinary abundance, taking from more than one hundred individuals, and we know of no one in his class like him (2). In Seville he occupied the chair for Qur’anic recitation and hadith audition. He was an accomplished reciter, a precise hadith scholar, a man of letters and language with vast learning, contented and trustworthy. When he died, his books were sold for the highest prices because of their accuracy; in this field he had no equal, and he also enjoyed a large share of linguistic expertise. Our shaykh Ibn Wājib narrated from him extensively.”

He passed away in Rabīʿ al-Awwal 575 AH, and his funeral was widely attended.

He had served as imam of the Great Mosque of Córdoba. His long-lived nephew, Abū al-Ḥusayn Ibn al-Sarrāj, recited to him in various transmissions (3) and received from him the Tafsīr of al-Nasāʾī and his own work al-Khaṣāʾiṣ.