413 – Al-Juwaynī, ʿAbd Allah ibn Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Ṭāʾī
The Shaykh of the Shāfiʿīs, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allah ibn Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥayyūyah al-Ṭāʾī al-Sinbisī—as al-Malik al-Muʾayyad (1) records his lineage—better known as al-Juwaynī, the father of Imām al-Ḥaramayn.
He was a jurist of exacting expertise, a critical scholar, a grammarian, and a Qurʾanic exegete.
He studied jurisprudence in Nishapur with Abū al-Ṭayyib al-Ṣuʿlūkī and in Marw with Abū Bakr al-Qaffāl.
He heard ḥadith from Abū Nuʿaym al-Isfarāʾīnī, Ibn Maḥmish, and—in Baghdad—from Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Bishrān, among others.
Those who narrated from him include his son Abū al-Maʿālī, ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Akhram, and Sahl ibn Ibrāhīm al-Masjidī.
Abū ʿUthmān al-Ṣābūnī said, “Had Shaykh Abū Muḥammad lived among the Children of Israel, his noble qualities would have been recorded for us and they would have taken pride in him.” (2)
(*) For further biographical details, see: Tabaqat al-‘Abbadi, p. 112; Dumyat al-qasr, 2/998-999; Al-Ansab, 3/385; Tabyin kadhib al-muftari, pp. 257-258; Al-Muntazam, 8/130-131; Mu‘jam al-buldan, 2/193; Mukhtasar al-siyāq, fol. 55; Al-Lubab, 1/315; Al-Kamil fi al-tarikh, 9/535; Tabaqat Ibn al-Salah, fol. 55; Wafayat al-a‘yan, 3/47; Al-Mukhtasar fi akhbar al-bashar, 2/168; Al-‘Ibar, 3/188; Tatimmat al-mukhtasar, 1/529; Mirat al-jinan, 3/58; Tabaqat al-Subki, 5/73-93; Tabaqat al-Isnawi, 1/338-340; Al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya, 12/55; Al-Nujum al-zāhira, 5/42; Tabaqat al-mufassirin (al-Dawudi), 1/253-255; Tabaqat Ibn Qadi Shuhba, fol. 20a; Miftah al-sa‘ada, 2/184; Tabaqat Ibn Hidaya Allah, pp. 144-145; Kashf al-zunun, pp. 339, 385, 445; Shadharāt al-dhahab, 3/261-262; Hadiyyat al-‘arifin, 1/451.
Al-Juwayni: the nisba refers to Juwayn, a large district in the region of Nishapur comprising several clustered villages.
(1) Al-Mukhtasar fi akhbar al-bashar, 2/168.
(2) See Tabaqat al-Isnawi, 1/339.