Umar ibn Shabba al-Numayri

Umar ibn Shabba al-Numayri (173–262 AH), one of the imams of reports and of biography and history. His name was Zayd, but he was called Shabba because his mother used to sing to him as a child, "O my little father and Shabba," and the nickname stuck to him until he lived to crawl about. He related from Ghandar, Ibn Mahdi, Yazid ibn Harun and others, and Ibn Abi al-Dunya, al-Baghawi and Ibn Ṣāʿid related from him. He was trustworthy and knowledgeable in biography and in the days of the people, and he wrote many works. ¹.

He related of himself that Waki ibn al-Jarrah passed by him, but he was prevented from going out to meet him because of his youth. Then he saw him in a dream performing ablutions on the bank of the Tigris, and said: "O Abu Sufyan, narrate a hadith to me." Waki narrated to him in the dream, and he memorised it. This is one of the most curious of his stories about seeking hadith. ¹.

He died in Samarra in Jumada al-Akhira of the year 262 AH, at the age of eighty-nine years less four days. ¹.