Abū al-Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn Bunān (1), al-Anbārī (2) by origin, Egyptian by residence, a professional scribe, and the son of the eminent judge Abū al-Faḍl.
He was born in Cairo in 507 AH.
He received ḥadith from: Abū Ṣādiq Murshid al-Madanī, his own father, Abū al-Barakāt Muḥammad ibn Ḥamzah al-ʿIrqī, and the judge Muḥammad ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ʿUrs (3).
He recited to Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Ḥuṭayʾah.
Those who narrated from him include: the Sharif Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥusaynī al-Ḥalabī, al-Rashīd Abū al-Ḥusayn al-ʿAṭṭār, and a number of others.
Al-Dhubaythī (4) said: “He arrived in Baghdad as an envoy from the ruler of Yemen, Sayf al-Islām (5). There he transmitted al-Sīrah (6) from his father, who had received it from al-Ḥabbāl; he also related al-Ṣiḥāḥ by al-Jawharī (7), and people copied samples of his poetry from him.”
… (Suhaj); al-Maqrizi, al-Suluk, vol. (qaf), p. 154; Ibn Taghribirdi, al-Nujum, 6/159; Ibn al-Furat, Tarikh, 8/76; al-Suyuti, Husn al-Muhadara, 1/176; Ibn al-Imad, al-Shadharat, 4/327; al-Zabidi, al-Taj, 9/145.
(1) The works that deal with doubtful names spell it with the letters bāʾ and nūn, yet in al-Falaka by al-Dilji, al-Nujum al-Zahira, Husn al-Muhadara and al-Shadharat it is corrupted to “Bayān,” an obvious scribal error.
(2) The same word is further distorted in al-Falaka to “al-Ubayari,” in Husn al-Muhadara to “al-Anmari,” and in al-Taj to “al-Dinari”; note the discrepancy.
(3) The term is vocalised with ḍamma on the ʿayn, followed by a quiescent rāʾ, then a sīn; al-Mundhiri registers it in al-Takmila.
(4) Dhayl Tarikh Madinat al-Salam, fol. 110 (Shahid ʿAli manuscript).
(5) That is, Tughtekin b. Ayyub.
(6) That is, the Sira compiled by ʿAbd al-Malik b. Hisham.
(7) Transmitted from Ibn al-Barakat Muhammad b. al-Husayn al-ʿIrqi. Ibn al-Dubaythi comments: “He heard it from him …”