and a champion of the community and the faith, Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar ibn Abī Bakr ibn Yūnus al-Kurdī—originally from Duwīn (1), born in Isnā, a Mālikī, and the author of numerous works.

He was born in 570 (2) AH, or in 571—the date is uncertain—in Isnā in Upper Egypt. His father served as chamberlain to Emir ʿIzz al-Dīn Mūsak al-Ṣalāḥī.

Abū ʿAmr pursued his studies in Cairo, memorised the Quran, and learned some of the variant readings from al-Shāṭibī, from whom he also heard al-Taysīr. He read, by the transmission routes of al-Mubhij (3), to al-Shihāb al-Ghaznawī, and he recited the Seven Readings before Abū al-Jūd.

He received hadith from Abū al-Qāsim al-Būṣīrī, Ismāʿīl ibn Yāsīn, Bahāʾ al-Dīn al-Qāsim ibn ʿAsākir, Fāṭimah bint Saʿd al-Khayr, and others, and he studied jurisprudence under Abū al-Manṣūr al-Abiyārī and additional scholars.

Gifted with an exceptional intellect, he was a foremost authority in Arabic and dialectics. He lectured in the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus and at the Mālikī Nūriyya school; many students graduated under him, and caravans spread his writings far and wide. He diverged from the grammarians on fine points and raised against them incisive objections that left them without reply.

Abū al-Fath Ibn al-Ḥājib said, in his biographical entry on Abū ʿAmr Ibn al-Ḥājib: “He is …”