, the foremost ḥadīth authority of Egypt alongside al-Layth, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥaḍramī, al-Uʿdūlī (1)—others say al-Ghāfiqī—the Egyptian.
It is also said that his kunyah was Abū al-Naḍr, but that report is not sound.
He was born in 95 or 96 AH.
He pursued knowledge in his boyhood, meeting the senior scholars of Egypt and of the Two Sacred Precincts.
Among those from whom he heard were: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Hurmuz al-Aʿraj, the companion of Abū Hurayrah; Mūsā ibn Wardān; ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ; ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb; ʿAmr ibn Dīnār; Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb; Abū Wahb al-Jayshānī; Mishraḥ ibn Hāʿān; ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar; ʿIkrimah, the client of Ibn ʿAbbās—if that is authentic; Kaʿb ibn ʿAlqamah; Qays ibn al-Ḥajjāj; Abū al-Aswad Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the ward of ʿUrwah (2); Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir; Abū al-Zubayr; Yazīd ibn ʿAmr al-Maʿāfirī; Abū Yūnus, the freedman of Abū Hurayrah; Abū ʿUshānah al-Maʿāfirī; Abū Qabīl al-Maʿāfirī; Aḥmad ibn Khāzim al-Maʿāfirī; Bakr ibn ʿAmr al-Maʿāfirī; Shuraḥbīl ibn Sharīk al-Maʿāfirī; ʿĀmir ibn Yaḥyā al-Maʿāfirī; Bukayr ibn al-Ashajj; Jaʿfar ibn Rabīʿah; Darraj Abū al-Samḥ; ʿUqayl ibn Khālid; ʿAmr ibn Jābir al-Ḥaḍramī; and many others.
Transmitters from him include his grandson Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā ibn ʿAbd Allāh; ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith; al-Awzāʿī; Shuʿbah; al-Thawrī—who all predeceased him—al-Layth ibn Saʿd; Mālik, though he did not cite him by name; Ibn al-Mubārak; al-Walīd ibn Muslim; Ibn Wahb; Ashhab; Zayd ibn al-Ḥubbāb; Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Muqriʾ; Marwān ibn Muḥammad; Bishr ibn ʿUmar al-Zahrānī; al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā al-Ashyab; and Asad ibn