ibn Maymūn al-Tamīmī, the Mosuli, a chronicler, a master of music, of graceful poetry, and of elegant literary compositions; yet he was also versed in jurisprudence, language, the annals of people, keen insight into ḥadith, and of high distinction.

He was born in the mid-150s AH.

He heard ḥadith from Mālik ibn Anas, Hushaym ibn Bashīr, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd, Abū Muʿāwiyah al-Ḍarīr, al-Aṣmaʿī, and many others.

Those who transmitted from him include his son Ḥammād—known as al-Rāwiyah—his own teacher al-Aṣmaʿī, al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār, Abū ʿUbaynā, Yazīd ibn Muḥammad al-Muhallabī, and others.

The major ḥadith critics did not relate much from him because his duties at court kept him away from them.

Another report states that he was born in 150 AH.

Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī said, “He was reliable and learned.”

Al-Khaṭīb said, “He had delightful witticisms, sound knowledge, excellent poetry, and was famed for his generosity.”

He authored the Book of Songs (Kitāb al-Aghānī), which his son transmits from him.

Isḥāq al-Mawṣilī said, “For a long stretch of my life I would set out at dawn every day to Hushaym or another of the ḥadith scholars; then I would go on to al-Kisāʾī, or al-Farrāʾ, or Ibn Ghazālah and recite to him a portion of the Qur’an, and after that to Abū Manṣūr Zalzal (1), who would drill me.”