He initially studied under the jurist Ziyād ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Shabaṭūn, Yaḥyā ibn Muḍar, and a number of other teachers.

Later he travelled to the eastern lands during the last days of Imām Mālik and heard from him the Muwaṭṭaʾ, save for several chapters on retreat (iʿtikāf). Because he was unsure whether he had heard those chapters directly from Mālik, he transmitted them instead through Ziyād Shabaṭūn on the authority of Mālik.

He also learned from al-Layth ibn Saʿd, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim al-ʿUtaqī.

From Ibn al-Qāsim he obtained ten volumes of questions and legal discussions.

He further studied with al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿUmari and Anas ibn ʿIyāḍ al-Laythī.

Some claim that he met Nāfiʿ ibn Abī Nuʿaym, the Qur’an reciter of Medina, and took knowledge from him; but this is unlikely, for Nāfiʿ died ten years before Mālik.

He kept close company with Ibn Wahb and Ibn al-Qāsim, then performed the ḥajj and returned to Medina seeking to gain more from Mālik, only to find him in his final illness.

He remained until Allah took Mālik’s soul, attended his funeral, and then went back to Córdoba laden with an abundant store of knowledge.

He took the teaching chair; people thronged to him, his fame spread far and wide, and they benefited from his knowledge, guidance, and dignified bearing.

A man of great stature, immense dignity, and commanding awe, he attained a degree of leadership and veneration that no one else reached.

Those who narrated from him include his son Abū Marwān ʿUbayd Allāh, Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd, Muḥammad ibn Waḍḍāḥ, Baqī ibn Makhlad, Ṣabbāḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-ʿUtaqī, and many others besides them.

Aḥmad ibn Khālid ibn al-Ḥubbāb, the ḥāfiẓ, used to say, “No one among the people of