Al-Azdī, al-Nasāʾī, the author of the books al-Targhīb wa’l-Tarhīb (Encouragement and Warning), al-Amwāl (Wealth), and other works.
His birth took place around 180 AH.
He studied under al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl, Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn, Yazīd ibn Hārūn, Saʿīd ibn ʿĀmir al-Ḍubaʿī, Wahb ibn Jarīr, Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Firyābī, Rūḥ ibn Aslam, Muʾammal ibn Ismāʿīl, ʿUbaydullāh ibn Mūsā, ʿAbdullāh ibn Ṣāliḥ the scribe, and many others.
Among those who related from him were Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasāʾī in their respective collections, Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, Muslim—though none of his traditions appear in their two Ṣaḥīḥs—Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj, Ibn Ṣāʿid, Muḥammad ibn Jarīr, Muḥammad ibn Khuraym al-Murri, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAttāb ibn al-Ziftī (1), Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Rayyānī, and others.
He was counted among the meticulous imams.
Al-Nasāʾī said: “Reliable.” (2)
Abū Ḥātim al-Bustī remarked: “He is the one who made the Sunnah manifest in Nasa.”