At the age of five Ibn Rajab's family moved to Damascus, then traveled to Jerusalem where he studied under al-Alla'i, then back to Baghdad and from there to Mecca.
Near the end of his life, Ibn Rajab began composing a commentary on Sahih Bukhari, but only reached the chapter on the funeral prayers before he died.
Ibn Rajab died on a Monday night 4th of Ramadhan 795AH (1393), at the age of fifty-nine, in a garden area he had rented in Damascus.
"[7] Al-Hafidh ibn Hajr al-Asqalani said of him: "He was highly proficient in the scientific disciplines of Hadith in terms of the names of reporters, their biographies, their paths of narration and awareness of their meanings.
"[8] Imaam ibn Muflih al-Hanbali said of him: "He was the Shaikh, the great scholar, the Hafidh, the one who abstained from the worldly life.