Among those who narrated from him were al-Birzālī, Ibn Khalīl, al-Ḍiyāʾ Muḥammad, al-Tāj Ibn al-Qasṭalānī, and Yaʿqūb ibn Abī Bakr al-Ṭabarī. He passed away in Mecca in 608 AH (1).
7 – Ibn ʿĀt, Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad ibn Hārūn ibn Aḥmad al-Nafzī – the shaykh, imām, distinguished ḥadith master (ḥāfiẓ), exemplar, and ascetic – Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad ibn Hārūn ibn Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar ibn ʿĀt al-Nafzī, of Shāṭiba (2).
He was born in 542 AH.
He heard ḥadith from his father, the scholar Abū Muḥammad; from Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Hudhail; from the ḥadith master ʿUlaym ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; from the ḥadith master Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī in Alexandria; from Abū al-Ṭāhir ibn ʿAwf; ʿĀshir ibn Muḥammad; and many others.
He was among the last of the prolific ḥadith masters. Al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAlī ibn al-Mufaḍḍal used to praise him for the breadth of his memorization and his eagerness to acquire knowledge (3).
(1) The most reliable opinion is that he died on 8 Safar. Al-Mundhiri first included him among those who passed away on 11 Shaʿban, but concluded his entry with the remark: “It is also said that his death occurred on 8 Safar of that same year, and this is the more likely view.” I say: this is likewise maintained by Ibn Nuqtah and by al-Dhahabi in Tarikh al-Islam quoting Ibn Masdi, and it is the view adopted by al-Fasi in Dhayl al-Taqyid and by Ibn Fahd in Ithaf al-Wara. Several other scholars, including al-Mundhiri himself, report that he was born in 538/1143–44.
(*) Principal sources: al-Nabahi, al-Marqabah al-ʿUlya, p. 116; Ibn al-Abar, al-Takmilah, 1:101–102; al-Mundhiri, al-Takmilah, 2: entry 1232; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 18/1:344–345; idem, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 4:1389–1390; idem, al-ʿIbar, 5:31; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, 5:36–37.
(2) In Shadharat al-Dhahab the tribal name is misprinted as “al-Naqari.” Al-Mundhiri spells it out: “Nafzah: with a fathah on the nun, a sukun on the fa, a fathah on the zay, followed by a feminine ta; it is a large tribe.”
(3) The author has taken this entire paragraph from al-Mundhiri.