Abu Dharr al-Harawi

Abu Dharr al-Harawi is Abd ibn Ahmad al-Ansari al-Maliki, known as Ibn al-Sammak. He heard hadith in Herat, Sarakhs, Balkh, Merv, Basra, Baghdad, Damascus and Egypt, then settled in Mecca. ²

He compiled a dictionary of his teachers. He came to Baghdad and transmitted there, then made the pilgrimage and settled, and he lived in al-Sarawat, and he used to perform the pilgrimage every year and transmit and then return. ²

Al-Maqqari describes him as trustworthy, exact, pious, ascetic and generous, and says that he became the chief of the shaykhs of the Sanctuary and was referred to in Sufism. He relates that most of the sound copies of the Sahih of al-Bukhari in the Maghrib go back to his transmission through al-Baji, or to the transmission of Ibn Sukkara through his chain. ²

Al-Maqqari says that the reason he adopted the Maliki school was that he saw al-Daraqutni attending on the judge Abu Bakr ibn al-Tayyib and kissing his face, and saying: "This is the imam of the Muslims." So he followed his school. ²

He died in 435 AH, and it is said 434 AH. ²

• The source of this page is a single one, "Nafh al-Tib"; a second source is needed.
• The date of death is disputed within the same source and has not been settled here.