Thirty-First Tier
81 – Ibn al-Sabūnī, Abū al-Fath Maḥmūd ibn Aḥmad al-Maḥmūdī
An imam and one of the last of the senior shaykhs: Abū al-Fath Maḥmūd ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Maḥmūdī, al-Jaʿfarī, better known as Ibn al-Sabūnī.
He was called “Ibn al-Sabūnī” after his mother’s grandfather, Shaykh al-Islām Abū ʿUthmān al-Sabūnī, the Sufi Qurʾān-reciter. Because he lived in the Jaʿfarī quarter of Baghdad, he was also linked to that district.
He was born circa 500 AH.
He studied the various Qurʾānic transmissions with Abū al-ʿIzz al-Qalansī.
He heard ḥadith from Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn and a number of others.
He kept the company of Ḥammād al-Dabbās and ʿAlī ibn Mahdī al-Baṣrī, and he maintained a small zawiya (spiritual lodge) in Baghdad.
Those who transmitted from him include his son ʿAlam al-Dīn, the ḥāfiẓ Ibn al-Mufaḍḍal, and several others.