al-Dārimī, Abū Saʿīd ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd (ca. 200–Dhū al-Ḥijja 280/816–February 894) was a theologian and leading ḥadīth scholar. His nisba ‘al-Dārimī’ indicates that he was a descendant of Dārim b. Mālik, of the Banū Tamīm (al-Dhahabī, Taʾrīkh, 20/396; al-Samʿānī, 2/440; Ibn al-Athīr, 1/404; al-Subkī, 2/302). He is also known by the title al-Sijistānī (Ibn Abī Ḥātim, 6/153), because his family derived from Sijistān, although he eventually settled in Herat.

He travelled far and wide in the Islamic lands and learnt many ḥadīths. In his pu…