the ʿĀmirī, a Kufan by origin who later settled in Nishapur.

He heard ḥadīth from Ḥammād ibn Zayd, Shurayk the Judge, ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Ḥarb, Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, Dāwūd al-Ṭāʾī, Ibn al-Mubārak, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, his father ʿAththām ibn ʿAlī, Mālik ibn Anas, Ghundar, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs, and a large number of others.

Those who learned from him include Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā and Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh.

Among the transmitters who narrated on his authority are al-Dhuhlī, Ayyūb ibn al-Ḥasan, Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, ʿAlī ibn Salamah al-Labaqī, Salamah ibn Shabīb, Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī, Abū Aḥmad al-Farrāʾ, and many others besides them.

Imām Muslim, in his Ṣaḥīḥ, relates—through an unnamed intermediary—from him.

Abū Ḥātim said: “Reliable.” (1)

Al-Ḥākim states in his History: “A man of letters, a jurist, a ḥāfiẓ, an ascetic, the foremost scholar of his age. He would narrate only with great difficulty, and most of what was taken from him consisted of historical anecdotes, ascetic literature, Qurʾānic commentary, and material on narrator criticism and accreditation.” (2)

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Farrāʾ said: “I have never seen anyone more reluctant to dispense his knowledge than ʿAlī ibn ʿAththām. He used to say, ‘People are never harmed by forbearance. A man comes and asks; once he receives something, he blunders. Another comes and misreads. Another comes merely to argue. Yet another comes only to boast. I am under no obligation to teach such people; I will teach only the one who truly cares about his religion.’” (3)