167 – Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAmmār ibn al-ʿUryān al-Tamīmī—also known as al-Māzinī of Basra—was the leading authority in Qurʾan recitation and the Arabic language.
His mother came from Banū Ḥanīfah.
There is disagreement about his given name; the most common view is Zabbān, though some say it was al-ʿUryān.
We have treated his life in detail in Tabaqāt al-Qurrāʾ.
He was born around 70 AH.
He transmitted a small number of hadith from Anas ibn Mālik, Yaḥyā ibn Yaʿmar, Mujāhid, Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Sammān, Abū Rajāʾ al-ʿAṭāridī, Nāfiʿ al-ʿUmarī, ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, and Ibn Shihāb.
He studied Qurʾan recitation with Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, Mujāhid, Yaḥyā ibn Yaʿmar, ʿIkrimah, Ibn Kathīr, and others. It is also reported that he recited to Abū al-ʿĀliyah al-Riyāḥī while they were together in Basra.
He excelled in the ḥurūf (variant readings) and in grammar, taught for many years, and became famous for eloquence, integrity, and expansive knowledge.
Those who read to him included Yaḥyā al-Yazīdī, al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl, ʿAbd al-Wārith ibn Saʿīd, Shujāʿ al-Balkhī, Ḥusayn al-Juʿfī, Muʿādh ibn Muʿādh, Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb the grammarian, Sahl ibn Yūsuf, Abū Zayd al-Anṣārī Saʿīd ibn Aws, Salām al-Ṭawīl, and many others.
Among those who narrated from him were Shuʿbah, Ḥammād ibn Zayd, Abū Usāmah, al-Aṣmaʿī, Shabābah ibn Sawwār, Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd, Abū ʿUbaydah the philologist, and others.
He devoted himself to teaching Qurʾan recitation in—