155 – ʿAbd Allah ibn Kathīr ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Kinānī, son of Zādhān ibn Fayrūzān ibn Hurmuz—the Imām, the distinguished authority, the Qur’an reciter of Mecca and one of the Seven Canonical Readers; Abū Maʿbad al-Kinānī, al-Dārī, al-Makkī, the client of ʿAmr ibn ʿAlqamah al-Kinānī.

Some said his kunya was Abū ʿAbbād, while others said Abū Bakr. He was of Persian descent.

He was called al-Dārī, and he worked as a perfumer.

Al-Bukhārī was mistaken when he claimed that he belonged to Banū ʿAbd al-Dār.

Ibn Abī Dāwūd said, “He is from the people of Tamīm al-Dārī. Al-Dār is a branch of Lakhm; their forefather is al-Dār ibn Hāniʾ ibn Ḥabīb ibn Numārah ibn Lakhm, a descendant of Udud ibn Sabaʾ.” Al-Dāraquṭnī followed him in this, and both of them erred.

Al-Aṣmaʿī said, “One who never leaves his home is called dārī because he does not go out to seek a livelihood.” On his authority it is also reported that Ibn Kathīr was a perfumer.

I (the author) say: This is the correct position, and the overlap of lineages does not nullify it.

He was among the Persians whom Chosroes sent to Ṣanʿāʾ in Yemen, and they drove the Abyssinians out of it.

It is said that he recited the Qur’an to ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Sāʾib al-Makhzūmī—that is possible—but what is famous is that he learned from Mujāhid and Dirbās, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās.

Those who recited to him include Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, Maʿrūf ibn Mushkān, Ismāʿīl ibn Qusṭanṭīn, and several others.

He transmitted hadith from Ibn al-Zubayr, Abū al-Minhāl ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muṭʿim, ʿIkrimah, Mujāhid, and others.

His hadith material is limited.

Narrators who reported from him include Ayyūb, Ibn Jurayj, Ismāʿīl ibn Umayyah, and Zamʿah ibn Ṣāliḥ,