Abū al-Dunyā was a man from the Maghrib, about whose alleged longevity stories have circulated since the 4th/10th century. Some writers, such as Abū Bakr al-Mufīd al-Jarjarāʾī, recorded his name and nisba as Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān b. al-Khaṭṭāb b. ʿAbd Allāh b. al-ʿAwwām al-Balawī (see al-Ḥākim, 10; al-Khaṭīb, 11/297; al-Juwaynī, 1/198), but in the reports of Ibn Akhī Ṭāhir al-ʿAlawī and Abū Saʿīd b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Rāzī he is referred to as ʿAlī b. ʿUthmān b. al-Khaṭṭāb b. Murra b. Muʾayyad (Ibn Bābawayh, 2/538–544; cf. al-Khaṭīb, 11/299; Ibn Rushayd, 3/67–70).

In some of the stories ab…