as well as the Muʿtazilite shaykh Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī, Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Zādhān al-Qazwīnī, and a number of others; I have never heard any disparagement of him.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Manda said: “He died in 379 AH.”

I add: He must have been close to a hundred years old.

247 – Abū Bakr al-Rāzī Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥanafī

The imam, profound scholar, mufti, independent jurist, and luminary of Iraq, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Rāzī, the Ḥanafī, was renowned for his authored works.

He studied law under Abū al-Ḥasan al-Karkhī and was a ḥadith scholar who travelled widely. In Nīshāpūr he met Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Aṣamm and the scholars of his circle; in Baghdad he met ʿAbd al-Bāqī ibn Qāniʿ, Daʿlaj ibn Aḥmad, and their peers; he also met al-Ṭabarānī and a number of others in Isfahān.

He wrote, compiled, and taught extensively, and the students of Baghdad graduated under his guidance; in knowledge of the Ḥanafī school the final word rested with him.

He came to Baghdad while still young and made it his permanent home.

Despite his mastery of scholarship, he was deeply ascetic and devoted to worship. The office of Chief Judge was offered to him but he declined it, and in his books he supports his views with hadiths whose chains of transmission he himself narrates in full.

Al-Khaṭīb said: Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Wāsiṭī narrated to us, saying, “Judge Abū—”