in scholarship. He also received ḥadīth from Abū al-Barakāt (1) Ibn al-Farāwī and ʿAbd al-Khāliq Ibn al-Shahhāmī.

He was later dispatched by the chancery as an envoy to the ruler of Ghaznah; while there, in 598 AH, he related ḥadīth and rose to an exalted rank of honour and influence.

Al-Dubaythī said: “He was trustworthy, his auditions were sound, and he was well-versed in the Shāfiʿī school, juristic disagreement, Qurʾānic exegesis, and ḥadīth—a man of many disciplines.”

Abū Shāma said: “He was an authority on tafsīr, the madhhab, the two uṣūls, and the points of disagreement; pious and truthful.”

Al-Muwaffaq ʿAbd al-Laṭīf said: “He served as Ibn Faḍlān’s teaching assistant, yet he outshone Ibn Faḍlān in mastery of the school and in Qurʾānic sciences. A finer companionship between two men I have never seen. We would attend the shaykh’s lesson, but its many digressions left us perplexed; then we would go to Ibn al-Rabīʿ and understand it exactly as we had heard it. When a legal question reached Ibn Faḍlān, he would not compose a reply until he had consulted Ibn al-Rabīʿ. Later Ibn al-Rabīʿ assumed the professorship of the Niẓāmiyya and was sent as an envoy to Khurāsān, where he died on the way.”

I say: Those who narrated from him include Ibn al-Dubaythī, Ibn al-Najjār, al-Ḍiyāʾ, and Ibn Khalīl; he also granted an authorisation to the Shaykh (2) and to Fakhr ʿAlī.

He passed away in the last days of Dhū al-Qaʿda, 606 AH. He held an ijāza from Zāhir ibn Ṭāhir.