He also served as al-Maʾmūn’s vizier, and he composed polished verse (1).
34 – Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad*
The Imām, the eminent scholar, the ascetic of his age: Abū Sulaymān ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad.
It is also said that his name was ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAṭiyyah, and another report calls him Ibn ʿAskar al-ʿAnsī, al-Dārānī (2).
He was born sometime in the early 140s AH.
He transmitted hadith from Sufyān al-Thawrī, Abū al-Ashhab al-ʿAtāridī, ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Zayd al-Baṣrī, ʿAlqamah ibn Suwayd, and Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Jalīl.
Among those who narrated from him are his disciple Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī, Hāshim ibn Khālid, Ḥumayd ibn Hishām al-ʿAnsī, ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Dārānī, Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd al-Muʾmin, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿUmayr, and Ibrāhīm ibn Ayyūb al-Ḥawrānī.
Abū al-Jahm ibn Ṭalāb relates: Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī informed us, saying, “The name of Abū Sulaymān is ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAnsī, of pure Arab lineage.”
(1) For samples of his poetry see Muʿjam al-udabaʾ, 16:130-131. Further biographical notices are found in: al-Jarh wa-al-taʿdil 5:214; Tarikh Dariya by Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbar al-Khawlani, p. 51; Tabaqat al-sufiya, pp. 75-82; Hilyat al-awliyaʾ 9:254-280; Tarikh Baghdad 10:248-250; Nataʾij al-afkar al-qudsiyya, commentary on al-Risala al-qushayriyya, 1:113; al-Ansab of al-Samʿani 5:243; Sifat al-safwa 4:223-234; Muʿjam al-buldan 2:431; al-Lubab 1:482; Wafayat al-aʿyan 3:131; al-Ibar 1:347; Fawat al-wafayat 2:265; ʿUyun al-tawarikh 7, fol. 186; Mirʾat al-jinnan 2:29; al-Bidaya wa-al-nihaya 10:255; Tabaqat al-awliyaʾ, pp. 386-397; al-Nujum al-zahira 2:179; Tabaqat al-Shaʿrani 1:92; Shadharat al-dhahab 2:13.
(2) Ibn Khallikan, 3:131, states: “al-Darani is pronounced with an open dal, followed by an alif and an open ra; after the second alif comes a nun. The nisba is derived from Dariya, a village in the Ghuta of Damascus. In this form the attribution is exceptional, and the ya in ‘Dariya’ is doubled.”