Muḥammad ibn Saʿd said, “Al-Awzāʿ is a clan of Hamdān, and he was one of their own. He was reliable.”
He added, “He was born in the year 88 AH. He was pious, eminent, trustworthy, and abundantly versed in knowledge, hadith, and jurisprudence—an unquestioned authority.”
He died in 157 AH.
As for al-Bukhārī, he said, “He was not actually from the Awzāʿ; he only settled among them.”
Al-Haytham ibn Khārijah related: “I heard our colleagues say, ‘He was not from the Awzāʿ; rather, he was the cousin⦗1⦘ of Yaḥyā ibn Abī ʿAmr al-Saybānī by blood. He merely resided in the village of al-Awzāʿ, which lies just beyond Bab al-Farādis.’”
Ḍamrah ibn Rabīʿah said, “Al-Awzāʿ is the name that came to be attached to a well-known quarter in the outskirts (rabḍ) of Damascus. It was so called because remnants of various tribes dwelt there. The word awzāʿ means ‘groups’; one says wazzaʿtuhu—‘I dispersed it.’”
Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī said, “The personal name of al-Awzāʿī was ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAmr ibn Abī ʿAmr, but he called himself ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. His roots go back to captives from Sind. He settled in al-Awzāʿ, and the epithet stuck to him. He became the jurist of greater Syria. His craft was writing and official correspondence, and his letters have been prized.”
Abū Mushir and a number of others said, “He was born in the year 88 AH.”
Ḍamrah narrated: “I heard al-Awzāʿī say, ‘I had reached puberty—or was nearly there—during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.’”
Muḥammad ibn Shuʿayb alone diverged from this, transmitting from al-Awzāʿī that he said, “My birth was in the year three …”