He was born in 265 AH. He heard ḥadith from Abū Muslim al-Kajjī, from Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Bāghandī—whom he met in 278 AH—from Jaʿfar al-Firyābī, Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah, Mūsā ibn Isḥāq, Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Marwazī, and several others.

He learned Qurʾān recitation from Idrīs al-Ḥaddād, the associate of Khalaf; from Dāwūd ibn Sulaymān, a pupil of Nuṣayr; from Abū Qabīṣah Ḥātim al-Mawṣilī; and from a number of other teachers.

He studied Arabic with Thaʿlab.

When he assumed the teaching chair for Qurʾān recitation, the following read to him: Ibrāhīm ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭabarī, Abū al-Faraj al-Nahrawānī, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ḥammāmī, Ibn Dāwūd al-Razzāz, al-Faraj ibn Muḥammad the judge, and others.

Among those who narrated from him were Ibn Ruzqawayh, Abū ʿAlī ibn Shādhān, and a group besides them.

Al-Khaṭīb said, “He is reliable (thiqa), one of the people most thoroughly versed in Kufan grammar and the most knowledgeable of the variant readings.”

He authored works on tafsīr and lexical meanings.

It was alleged that he deliberately adopted certain readings that ran counter to the scholarly consensus and proceeded to teach them. He was therefore censured, and the ruler of the (1) realm obliged him to repent in the presence of the jurists and reciters, who recorded a formal statement of his repentance.

Yet it was also said that he did not desist thereafter; rather, he went on teaching those readings.

Ibn Abī Hāshim remarked, “In our time there has arisen someone who claims that any reading which possesses a sound grammatical rationale in Arabic and accords with the written text of the muṣḥaf is permissible to recite in prayer and elsewhere.” (2)

Abū Aḥmad al-Farāḍī said, “I saw Ibn Miqsam (3) praying as though his back were turned to the qiblah.”