Zurʿah—better known as Ḥimyar al-Aṣghar, of the Himyar tribe, later called al-Aṣbaḥī, the Madinan, an ally of Banū Taym of Quraysh; hence they were the confederates of ʿUthmān, the brother of Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbayd Allah, one of the Ten (1).
His mother was ʿĀliyyah bint Sharīk al-Azdiyyah.
His paternal uncles were Abū Suhayl Nāfiʿ, Uways, al-Rabīʿ, and al-Naḍr—the sons of Abū ʿĀmir.
Al-Zuhrī transmitted from his father Anas and from his two uncles, Uways and Abū Suhayl, and he said, “the client of the Taymiyyīn.”
Abū Uways ʿAbd Allah also narrated from his uncle al-Rabīʿ, and their father was counted among the senior scholars of the Successors.
He (i.e., Anas) had studied under ʿUthmān and a number of others.
According to the soundest opinion, Mālik was born in the year 93 AH—the year Anas, the servant of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, died. He was reared in propriety, ease, and dignified appearance.
While still a youth he sought knowledge, shortly after the deaths of al-Qāsim and Sālim.
He studied with Nāfiʿ, Saʿīd al-Maqburī, ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, Ibn al-Munkadir, al-Zuhrī, ʿAbd Allah ibn Dīnār, and many others whom we shall list alphabetically, noting beside each the number of traditions he cites from him in the Muwaṭṭaʾ.
They are:
Ishāq ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Ṭalḥah (18);
Ayyūb ibn Abī Tamīmah al-Sakhtiyānī, the scholar of Basra (4);
Ayyūb ibn Ḥabīb al-Juhanī, client of Saʿd ibn Mālik (1);
Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUqbah (1);
Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Ḥakīm (1);
Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (1);
Thawr ibn Zayd al-Dīlī (3);
Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad (7);
Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl (6);
Ḥumayd ibn Qays al-Aʿraj (2);
Khubayb ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (2);
Dāwūd ibn al-Ḥuṣayn (4);
Dāwūd Abū Laylā ibn ʿAbd Allah—regarding the qasāmah (1);
Rabīʿah al-Raʾy (5);
Zayd ibn Aslam (26) (26);
Zayd ibn Rabāḥ (1);
Ziyād ibn Saʿd (1),