al-Abbār (1) said: He dedicated himself to legal reasoning and memorized its corpus. He was appointed to the post of the shūrā (consultative council) when he was a little over twenty (2) years old, in 539 AH. He went on to hold the judgeship of Murcia and Xàtiva several times. Keenly versed in the Mālikī school and tireless in disseminating it, he was eloquent, articulate, upright, dignified, and firmly rooted in prominence and esteem.

He authored the book Natāʾij al-Afkār (3) fī Maʿānī al-Āthār (“The Fruits of Reflection on the Meanings of Traditions”), which he composed when the ruler struck at the Mālikīs and ordered the burning of the Mudawwanah. He also wrote Iqlīd al-Iqlīd (4), al-Muʾaddī ilā al-Naẓar al-Sadīd (“The Key of Keys Leading to Sound Judgment”).

Abu Muḥammad ibn Ḥawṭ Allāh read the Muwaṭṭaʾ to him, transmitting it from his father, from his grandfather, in a student-reading session. Some people leveled remarks against him (5) that do not impugn his reliability.

Those who narrated from him include Abu ʿUmar ibn ʿĀt and Abu ʿAlī ibn Zulāl. He wrote to me granting ijāzah when I was two years old, and he is the earliest of my teachers in terms of chain of transmission.

He died in Murcia, in Muḥarram 599 AH, at a little over eighty years of age.

Abu al-Rabīʿ ibn Sālim said: “Irregularities appeared in his transmission work, which cast suspicion on him and set tongues wagging.”

I add: Ibn al-Zubayr heard al-Taysīr from Abu ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jubar, on the basis of the latter’s own audition of it from him.