Ibn al-Naffāḥ said: “Abū ʿUmar narrated to us, saying:
‘I completed a full reading (khatmah) with Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar according to the Medinan recitation. I lived during the lifetime of Nāfiʿ, and had I possessed ten dirhams I would have travelled to him.’

Abū ʿAlī al-Ahwāzī remarked: “Abū ʿUmar journeyed in search of the Qurʾānic readings. He studied all seven canonical readings as well as the non-canonical variants, heard a great deal about them, authored works on the subject, was reliable, and lived a long life. Toward the end of his days he lost his sight, and he was a man of piety.

Al-Ḥākim reports that al-Dāraqutnī said: ‘Abū ʿUmar al-Dūrī was nicknamed “the Blind,” and he is weak.’

It is also said that he came from al-Dūr, a district on the eastern side of Baghdad.

Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, al-Baghawī, and others stated that he died in 246 AH; some add: in Shawwāl. Another opinion places his death in 248 AH.

Ḥājib al-Farghānī erred on this point, and we have discussed the matter in detail in Tabaqāt al-Qurrāʾ.

As for al-Dāraqutnī’s verdict ‘weak,’ he meant with respect to his precision in hadith transmission; in the field of qirāʾah he was a sound, authoritative imam.

The same is true of several reciters who were reliable in the Qurʾānic readings but not in hadith—such as Nāfiʿ, al-Kisāʾī, and Ḥafṣ—for they shouldered the burden of the letters and refined them, yet did not do likewise in hadith; just as some hadith masters perfected transmission but did not master recitation. Such is the case of anyone who excels in one discipline while neglecting others—and Allah knows best.

160 – Sawwār ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sawwār al-Tamīmī * (D, T, S)
Ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qudāmah, the imam, the eminent scholar, the judge, Abū ʿAbd Allāh.