Abū Riyāsh Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Shaybānī al-Qaysī (d. 339/950-1), was a rāwī (transmitter of poetry), philologist, and poet. Born in al-Yamāma, he settled in Basra. Originally a soldier and later active as a civil servant charged with levying duties on ships at ʿAbbādān, he became well known for his knowledge of Arabic language, early poetry, and genealogy. He is also said to have memorised five thousand folios of lexicography and twenty thousand lines of poetry. He spoke with a Bedouin accent, had a loud voice,