Originally an Isfahani, later a Baghdadi, he bore the title al-Ḥājib (the Chamberlain).

He was born in 568 AH.

He heard ḥadith from Tajannī al-Wahbāniyyah – the fascicle known as Juzʾ al-Ḥaffār – as well as the second and fourth parts of the Mahāmiliyāt, the work al-Ṣamt, Juzʾ al-Marwazī, and al-Mukharramī.

He also studied with Ibn Yūsuf, from whom he received his Mashyakha and al-Ājurrī’s Taṣdīq.

From Ibn Shātil he heard the second portion of Ḥadīth Saʿdān and the eighth of Ḥadīth Ibn al-Sammāk. He likewise heard from al-Qazzāz, Abū al-ʿAlāʾ Ibn ʿAqīl, and several others, and he transmitted certain material as the sole narrator.

Among those who narrated from him were Ibn al-Najjār, al-Muḥibb, al-Sharīshī, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Muqayyar. He also granted ijāza to al-Bijjadī (1), to Sitt al-Fuquhāʾ bint al-Wāsiṭī, and to Bint al-Kamāl.

He died in 647 AH (2).

Both Ibn al-Najjār and al-Muḥibb criticised and accused him; consequently, his narrations are accepted only when taken from an original source.

I say: this was because he produced an ijāza dated 564 AH that had in fact belonged to a brother of his whose name was—