ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī, Abū Saʿīd al-ʿAnbarī (135–198/752–814), was a muḥaddith (traditionist) and faqīh (jurist) from Baṣra. From his early youth he studied ḥadīth under such great scholars as Ḥammād b. Zayd, Ḥammād b. Salama, Sufyān al-Thawrī and Shuʿba b. al-Ḥajjāj, both in his hometown of Baṣra and in Kūfa. He then went to the Ḥijāz, and during a period in Medina he learnt from the great masters (shaykhs) of that region such as ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. al-Mājishūn and attended the circle of Mālik b. Anas for a while. He also had scholarly dialogues and exchanges of…