Amr ibn Dinar (, ) was a seventh-century Muslim
jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...
and
hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...
transmitter from the ''
tabi'un
The tābi‘ūn ( ar, اَلتَّابِعُونَ, also accusative or genitive tābi‘īn , singular ''tābi‘'' ), "followers" or "successors", are the generation of Muslims who followed the companions (''ṣaḥābah'') of the Islamic proph ...
'' who served as the
mufti
A Mufti (; ar, مفتي) is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion ('' fatwa'') on a point of Islamic law (''sharia''). The act of issuing fatwas is called ''iftāʾ''. Muftis and their ''fatwas'' played an important rol ...
of
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
.
Biography
Amr ibn Dinar's exact date of birth is unknown, but Islamic biographical dictionaries estimate it to be around .
He was a ''
mawla
Mawlā ( ar, مَوْلَى, plural ''mawālī'' ()), is a polysemous Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874.
Before the Islamic prophet ...
'' of either Banu Maddhij or the Banu Jumah.
In his early years, he attended the study circles of
Ibn Abbas
ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās ( ar, عَبْد ٱللَّٰه ٱبْن عَبَّاس; c. 619 – 687 CE), also known as Ibn ʿAbbās, was one of the cousins of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He is considered to be the greatest mufassir of the Qur'a ...
' students, possibly in Mecca and
Ta'if
Taif ( ar, , translit=aṭ-Ṭāʾif, lit=The circulated or encircled, ) is a city and governorate in the Makkan Region of Saudi Arabia. Located at an elevation of in the slopes of the Hijaz Mountains, which themselves are part of the Sarat M ...
.
He later studied under
Ata ibn Abi Rabah
Ata ibn Abi Rabah ( ar, عطاء بن أبي رباح, translit=ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ) was a prominent early Muslim jurist and hadith transmitter who served as the ''mufti'' of Mecca in the seventh and eighth centuries.
Early life
Ata w ...
and
Tawus ibn Kaysan Tawus Ibn Kaysan ( ar, طاووس بن كيسان; died 723) was one of the ''Tabi‘in'', one of the narrators of hadith and scholars of fiqh.
He is also known as Tawoos ibn Kaysaan, "Tawoos" or "al-Taus,".
Biography
He was one of the scholars of ...
and was regarded positively, the latter encouraging his son to study under him.
He gained renown as a scholar by the beginning of the eighth century and was offered the position of ''mufti'' of Mecca by the
Umayyads Umayyads may refer to:
*Umayyad dynasty, a Muslim ruling family of the Caliphate (661–750) and in Spain (756–1031)
*Umayyad Caliphate (661–750)
:*Emirate of Córdoba (756–929)
:*Caliphate of Córdoba
The Caliphate of Córdoba ( ar, خ ...
after the death of Ata. Although he initially refused, he accepted after being offered the post a second time following the death of Ata's successor,
Qays ibn Sa'd.
Amr's most prominent student was
Sufyan ibn ʽUyaynah, through whom much of his biographical information is transmitted.
Biographical works suggest he possessed an odd personality: he seemingly arbitrarily refused to answer questioners, required his students to carry him in and out of mosques and expressed his displeasure by weeping and pretending to be blind.
He was opposed to his students recording his opinions on the grounds that they were subject to change. He also disapproved of them writing down hadith narrated through him, although several, including Ibn Uyaynah, transmitted hadith from him in written form regardless.
Amr died around {{Circa, {{AH, 126 and was succeeded as ''mufti'' by his peer
Ibn Abi Najih.
References
7th-century Muslim scholars of Islam
Tabi‘un
Tabi‘un hadith narrators
666 births
744 deaths