Al-Ṭabarī said: He passed away in 169 AH. Another opinion places his death at the beginning of 170 AH. His son, al-Faḍl ibn al-Rabīʿ, later served as Hārūn al-Rashīd’s chamberlain.

121 – Nāfiʿ ibn Abī Nuʿaym, Abū Ruwaym al-Aṣbahānī
The Imām and master of the Qur’an, Abū Ruwaym.
He was also called Abū al-Ḥasan, Abū Nuʿaym, Abū Muḥammad, and Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. He was the client (mawlā) of Jaʿūnah ibn Shaʿūb al-Laythī, an ally of Ḥamzah, the uncle of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him. Another report calls him the ally of al-ʿAbbās, Ḥamzah’s brother, and traces his origin to Isfahān.

He was born during the caliphate of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, in the early 70s AH. He perfected his recitation of the Book of Allah under a number of the Successors, so much so that Mūsā ibn Ṭāriq transmitted from him, saying, “I recited to seventy of the Successors.”

I say: His reading became famous through five transmitters: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Hurmuz al-Aʿraj—the companion of Abū Hurayrah; Abū Jaʿfar Yazīd ibn al-Qaʿqāʿ—one of the Ten (1); Shaybah ibn Niṣāḥ; Muslim ibn Jundub al-Hudhalī; and Yazīd ibn Rūmān.

These men had in turn learned from the companions of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb and Zayd ibn Thābit, as we clarified in Tabaqāt al-Qurrāʾ. It is soundly established that the five also recited to the Madinan teacher of recitation, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah al-Makhzūmī, a pupil of Ubayy. It is additionally reported—though only deemed possible—that they recited to Abū Hurayrah and to Ibn ʿAbbās. A further report relates that Muslim ibn Jundub read to Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām and to Ibn ʿUmar.

(1) One of the ten canonical reciters.