[2] Descended from a branch of the Banu Tamim,[3] Ibn al-ʻAlāʼ is one of the seven primary transmitters of the chain of narration for the Qur'an.
[5] He was as well known as a grammarian as he was a reader, though his reading style was influenced by those of Nafi‘ al-Madani and Ibn Kathir al-Makki.
[6] In between his study of Qur'an reading in his hometown of Mecca and in Basra, he also travelled to learn more about the practice in the Kufan school and in Medina.
[4] Another student of his was Abu ʿUbaidah, who called Ibn al-ʻAlāʼ the most learned of all men in philology, grammar, Arabic poetry and the Qur'an.
[14] On his return from a visit to the governor of Syria, Ibn al-ʻAlāʼ experienced a series of fainting fits and died in Kufa in 770CE (154AH).