well-known as al-Bāfī, a resident of Baghdad and a disciple of Abū ʿAlī ibn Abī Hurayrah and Abū Isḥāq al-Marwazī. He lived to a great age.
He was an ocean of learning, highly skilled in Arabic, quick-witted, and an exquisite poet (1).
Classed among the Ashāb al-Wujūh, many students acquired their juristic training under him.
Among those who transmitted his reports was Abū al-Qāsim al-Tanūkhī.
He was counted among the masters of eloquence, and he composed:
We have gathered, yet no meeting has been decreed (2) …
so we ask Allah for the best outcome to this separation.
If you depart, I shall not (3); but if you remain,
then it is I who vanish, as though our parting were by agreement (4).
Al-Bāfī died in Muḥarram of the year 398 AH.
37 – Ibn Khurashīdh-Qūlah, Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Karmānī
The shaykh, the upright and trustworthy transmitter, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad
… = 140; al-Shirazi, Tabaqat al-fuqahaʾ, p. 102; al-Samʿani, al-Ansab, 2/47; Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Muntazam, 7/240; Yaqut, Muʿjam al-buldan, 1/326; Ibn Hajar, al-Lubab, 1/112; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 4/107/2; idem, al-Ibar, 3/68; al-Subki, Tabaqat al-Subki al-kubra, 3/317; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya, 11/340; Ibn Taghribirdi, al-Nujum al-zahira, 4/219; Tabaqat Ibn Hidaya Allah, p. 107; Ibn al-ʿImad, Shadharat al-dhahab, 3/152.
Al-Bafi: the nisba is to Bav, a village in Khwarazm; in al-Yatima it is corrupted to “al-Nami,” and in al-Bidaya to “al-Baji.”
(1) For a selection of his poems, see al-Yatima, 2/122-123; Tarikh Baghdad, 10/140; Tabaqat al-Subki, 3/318; Muʿjam al-buldan, 1/326.
(2) Al-Ansab and Tarikh Baghdad read: “kam hadarna fa laysa yuqda al-tilaqi” (“however often we were present, the meeting was never fulfilled”).
(3) Al-Ansab and Tarikh Baghdad read: “in aghib lam taghib” (“if I am absent, you are not”).
(4) The two verses are cited in Tarikh al-Islam, 4/107/2; al-Ansab, 2/48; Tarikh Baghdad, 10/139-140.
(*) Tarikh Isfahan, 1/304; Tarikh al-Islam, 4/114/1-2; al-Ibar, 3/72; Shadharat al-dhahab, 3/158.