42 – Niṭfawayh, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿArafah
The imam, ḥāfiẓ, grammarian, eminent scholar, and historian, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿArafah ibn Sulaymān al-ʿAtakī, al-Azdī, al-Wāsitī—better known as Niṭfawayh (1)—was the author of numerous works.
He settled in Baghdad and transmitted hadith from Isḥāq ibn Wahb al-ʿAllāf, Shuʿayb ibn Ayyūb al-Ṣarīfīnī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Daqīqī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-ʿUṭāridī, Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī, and others.
He learned the Arabic language from Muḥammad ibn al-Jahm, Thaʿlab, and al-Mubarrad, and he studied jurisprudence under Dāwūd (2).
Among those who narrated from him were al-Muʿāfā ibn Zakariyyā, Abū Bakr ibn Shādhān, Abū ʿUmar ibn Ḥayyawayh, Abū Bakr ibn al-Muqriʾ, and many others.
He was born in 244 AH.
(*) Tabaqat al-nahawiyyin wa-l-lughawiyyin, 172; al-Fihrist, 121; Tarikh Baghdad, 6/159–162; Nuzhat al-alba, 178–180; al-Muntazam, 6/277–278; Mu‘jam al-udaba, 1/254–272; Inbah al-ruwat, 1/176–182; Wafayat al-a‘yan, 1/47–49; al-‘Ibar, 2/198; Mizan al-i‘tidal, 1/64; al-Wafi bi-l-wafayat, 6/130–133; Mir’at al-jinan, 2/287; Lisan al-mizan, 1/190–110; al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya, 11/183; Ghaya al-nihaya, 1/25; al-Nujum al-zahirah, 3/249–250; Bughyat al-wu‘at, 187–188; Shadharat al-dhahab, 2/298–299.
(1) The word may be vocalised with kasra or fatha on the letter nun; the pronunciation with kasra is preferable, and the fa bears a sukun.
(2) He is Dawud ibn ‘Ali ibn Khalaf al-Asbahani, Abu Sulayman, known as al-Zahiri, one of the independent jurists (mujtahids) of Islam. The Zahiri school is named after him because it confines itself to the outward wording of the Quran and the sunnah, refusing allegorical interpretation, personal opinion, or analogy. Dawud died in 270/883. See Wafayat al-a‘yan, 2/255–257.