al-Riyāshī, the Basran grammarian, a client of Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān ibn ʿAlī the ʿAbbāsid emir—though it is also said that his father had been the slave of a man from the tribe of Judhām named Riyāsh.
He was born sometime after 180 AH.
He learned from a great many scholars and transmitted from: Abū ʿUbaydah Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā, Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī, al-Aṣmaʿī, Abū ʿĀṣim al-Nabīl, Abū Aḥmad Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Zubayrī, Ashhal ibn Ḥātim, Aḥmad ibn Khālid al-Wahbī, ʿUmar ibn Yūnus al-Yamāmī, Wahb ibn Jarīr, Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm, al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Abī Sawiyyah al-Minqarī, Musaddad, Muḥammad ibn Sallām, and many others.
Those who narrated from him include: Abū Dāwūd—who cites his remarks in the discussion of the dentition of camels (1)—Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī, Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, his son Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Mubarrad, Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmīrah, Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Bustī the judge, Abū Khalīfah al-Faḍl ibn al-Ḥubāb (2), Abū ʿArūbah al-Ḥarrānī, Abū Rūq
Idah al-Maknun 2:261, 294, 326; Bughyat al-Wuʿat 2:27; al-Kamil (Ibn al-Athir) 5:364; Tarikh Abi al-Fida 2:48; Talkhis Ibn Maktum p. 178; al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil 6:213-214; Akhbar al-Nahwiyin al-Basriyin pp. 89, 93; Tabaqat al-Nahwiyin wa-l-Lughawiyin pp. 97, 99; al-Fihrist pp. 63-64; Tarikh Baghdad 12:138, 140; al-Ansab 6:209-210; Nuzhat al-Albāʾ pp. 262, 264; Muʿjam al-Udabāʾ 12:44, 46; al-Lubab 2:46; Inbāh al-Ruwāt 2:367, 374; Wafayāt al-Aʿyān 3:27-28; Tahdhib al-Kamal pp. 659-660; Tadhhib al-Tahdhib 2:126/2; al-ʿIbar 2:14; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 5:124-125; Tarikh Ibn Kathir 11:38; Tabaqat al-Nuhat (Ibn Qadi Shuhbah) 2:14-15; al-Nujum al-Zahira 3:27-28; Khulasat Tadhhib al-Kamal p. 189; Shadharat al-Dhahab 2:136.
(1) See Sunan Abi Dawud 2:247, “Chapter on the classification of camels by their teeth.”
(2) He is the transmitter of the book Tabaqat Fuhul Shuʿara (Classes of the Master Poets) from Ibn Sallam al-Jumahi. Blind from birth, he was the nephew of Muhammad ibn Sallam, the author of the Tabaqat. A renowned narrator of historical reports, poetry, adab literature, and genealogies, he was regarded as the leading hadith authority of his time in Basra, trustworthy and learned, and he related traditions from the foremost imams.