al-Mubārak ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Shaybānī, first of al-Jazīrah and later of Mosul, the secretary, better known as Ibn al-Athīr, author of Jāmiʿ al-Uṣūl, Gharīb al-Ḥadīth, and other works.

Birth: He was born on Jazīrat Ibn ʿUmar in one of the two months of Rabīʿ, in 544 AH. He grew up there, then moved to Mosul. He studied ḥadith under Yaḥyā ibn Saʿdūn al-Qurṭubī, the preacher of Mosul (1), and under a number of other teachers.

Transmissions: He narrated the major collections with relatively short chains. He transmitted Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī from Ibn Sarāyā, from Abū al-Waqt; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim from Abū Yāsir ibn Abī Ḥabbah, from Ismāʿīl al-Samarkandī, from al-Tunkutī, from Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Ghāfir, and later—by written licence—from Ibn Sukeinah, from al-Farawī. He gave al-Muwaṭṭaʾ on the authority of Ibn Saʿdūn, who said, “Ibn ʿAttāb related to us from Ibn Mughīth,” but this was a mistake. He likewise related Sunan Abī Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī through his own audition from Ibn Sukeinah, and Sunan al-Nasāʾī on the authority of Yaʿīsh ibn Ṣadaqah, from Ibn Maḥmūwayh.

He subsequently entered the service of the amir Mujāhid al-Dīn Qaymāz (2) al-Khādim and remained with him until his patron’s death. Thereafter he handled the official correspondence for the ruler of Mosul, ʿIzz al-Dīn Masʿūd al-Atābakī, and was placed in charge of the dīwān.