He also composed, in the Ṣāḥib’s name, a book entitled Al-Ḥijr, for which the Ṣāḥib ordered that he be given only a modest reward (1).

He used to say, “Whoever’s knowledge of the language is meagre, and he is challenged, will surely commit mistakes” (2).

Saʿd ibn ʿAlī al-Zanjānī said: “Abū al-Ḥusayn was one of the great imams of Arabic; his opinion was cited in every field, and no one contested it. He travelled to the unrivalled scholar Abū al-Ḥasan al-Qaṭṭān, then to Zanjān to the disciple of Thaʿlab, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Khaṭīb, and to Mayānaj to Aḥmad ibn Ṭāhir ibn al-Najm. He would remark, ‘I have never seen anyone like him.’

“Abū al-Ḥusayn was later brought to Rayy so that the prince Majd al-Dawla, son of Fakhr al-Dawla, could study under him. Through this engagement he received a sum of money from the prince, who in turn became proficient under his tutoring. Abū al-Ḥusayn was so generous that he would give away even his own clothes and the furnishings of his house. He was one of the leading champions of the sunnah, firmly committed to the methodology of the people of hadith.

“He died in Rayy, in the month of Ṣafar, in the year 395 AH (3). Abū al-Qāsim ibn Manda also dated his death to that year, and anyone who claimed he died in 390 AH is in error (4).”

Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān told us; al-Bahāʾ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān told us; ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Yūsufī told us; Hādī ibn Ismāʿīl told us; ʿAlī ibn al-Qāsim told us,