Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr ibn al-Samḥ al-Azdi, afterwards al-Dawsī, a descendant of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him).

He studied under Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Laythī the jurist, Saʿīd ibn Ḥassān, and ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ḥabīb, from whom he transmitted in great quantity and whose works he carried with him. In his later years he travelled in quest of knowledge, attended new auditions, and disseminated his learning in Egypt.

He also heard from Isḥāq al-Dabarī (1), ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Baghawī, and Yūsuf ibn Yazīd al-Qarāṭīsī.

He was an unrivalled authority in jurisprudence, keenly versed in Arabic, eloquent, perceptive, and a prolific author. He settled in Mecca, where he narrated Ibn Ḥabīb’s al-Wāḍiḥa (2), and there his standing grew immensely.

Tamīm ibn Muḥammad al-Qayrawānī transmitted from his father, who said:

“Abū ʿAmr al-Maghāmī was a trustworthy Imām, master of numerous disciplines, and a skilled defender of the doctrines of the people of the Hijaz. He was robust in fiqh, intelligent and dignified; seldom have I met his like in intellect, manners, and character. Though already elderly, he travelled in pursuit of hadith. I saw him receive a great many letters—about one hundred—from the scholars of Egypt, asking him for authorisation to narrate, and some imploring him to return to them.”

I asked him about the year of his birth, but he refused to tell me. While he was with us he died in Kairouan in 288 AH.

I add: he composed a ten-volume refutation of Imām al-Shāfiʿī and authored the book Faḍāʾil Mālik (The Merits of Mālik).