Al-Faradī: within him were gathered the instruments of learning—knowledge itself, mastery of Qur’an recitation, and lofty chains of transmission—together with ample worldly means; yet for all that he was the most scrupulous of people. I have never seen his like. (1)
I say: He died in Shawwal 406 AH at the age of eighty-two.
I have set out his biography in full in Tabaqāt al-Muqriʾīn. (2)
I heard the Qālūn method of recitation from ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim (3), who said: “Abu al-Yumn al-Kindī informed me, saying, ‘I recited it before Hibat Allah ibn al-Tabar, who said: I recited it to Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Mūsā al-Khayyāṭ in the year 461 AH. He said: I recited it to Abu Aḥmad al-Faradī, from Ibn Buyān, from Abu Ḥassān, from Abu Nashīṭ, from Qālūn, the disciple of Nāfiʿ.’”
125 – Ibn Furak, Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Aṣbahānī *
The imam, the erudite scholar, the pious man, the shaykh of the theologians, Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn
(1) Tarikh Baghdad, 10/381; al-Ansab, 9/273.
(2) vol. 1, pp. 292–294.
(3) The author gives his biography in his Mashyakha, folio 107: “Umar ibn Abd al-Munim ibn Umar ibn Abd Allah ibn Aziz, a trustworthy, long-lived transmitter, the musnid of his time, Nasir al-Din, Abu al-Qasim, also Abu Hafs, al-Tai al-Dimashqi, known as Ibn al-Qawwas, born in 605 H (approx.). … He narrated extensively, stood unrivalled in his day, and students flocked to him. Abu Amr al-Muqatili compiled for him a Mashyakha, and I produced another. I read to him al-Mubhij on the seven Quranic readings by Ibn Mujahid and al-Kifaya on the six readings, and I heard from him about eighty fascicles. An excellent shaykh—pious, humble, courteous, of fine character, and devoted to hadith. … He owned a large orchard at Irbil that provided his livelihood and where he resided most of the time. He performed the pilgrimage in 628 H, and died on 2 Dhu al-Qiʿda 698 H.”
(*) al-Risala al-Qushayriyya, p. 310; Tabyin Kadhib al-Muftari, p. 232; Inba al-Ruwat, 3/110–111; Tabaqat Ibn al-Salah, fol. 8; Wafayat al-Ayan, 4/272–273; al-Ibar, 1/95; Talkhis Ibn Maktum, p. 203; al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat, 2/344; Mirat al-Jinan, 3/17–18; Tabaqat al-Subki, 4/ …