Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, son of Ibrāhīm, son of Aḥmad, son of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, son of Ismāʿīl, son of Manṣūr al-Maqdisī, the Hanbalī jurist and commentator on al-Muqniʿ; he was a first cousin of the ḥāfiẓ al-Ḍiyāʾ and of al-Shams Aḥmad, the father of al-Fakhr ibn al-Bukhārī.

He was born in the village of al-Sāwiyā (1)—where his father led the prayers—in 555 AH, or possibly in 556.

To escape Frankish rule, his father emigrated with him and travelled as a merchant to Egypt—referring to the father—after which his mother died. His paternal aunt Fāṭima, the wife of Shaykh Abū ʿUmar, undertook his upbringing. He completed the Qurʾān in 570 AH and was spurred to serious study by the ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī. In 572 AH he set out on his journeys in the company of Shaykh al-ʿImād. In Ḥarrān he studied under Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Wafāʾ, completed a full recital there, led the tarāwīḥ prayers, whereupon the people gathered their zakāt al-fiṭr for him and bought him a mount. He then made for Baghdad, although al-ʿImād had preceded him together with Ibn Rājiḥ (2) and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Abī Bakr.

In Mosul he heard hadith from its khaṭīb, and in Baghdad he received a large body of material from Shuhda the Scribe, as well as from ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq, Abū Hāshim al-Dūshābī, Muḥammad ibn Nasīm, Aḥmad ibn al-Nāʿim, Abū al-Fatḥ ibn Shātīl, ʿAbd al-Muḥsin ibn Turayk, and their peers. He copied many single-volume works and built up a substantial collection.

In Damascus he studied under Muḥammad ibn Baraka al-Ṣilḥī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-ʿAjāʾiz, the qāḍī Kamāl al-Dīn al-Shahrazūrī, and others. He transmitted extensively in Damascus, Nablus, and Baʿlabakk, and was thoroughly conversant with the Hanbalī school.