and he said, “I will not relate any ḥadīth unless it is for gold.”

He would take nothing from strangers. He was reliable, yet poor.

I (the author) say: He died in Dhū al-Qaʿda of the year 439 AH.

416 – The Minister Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Fasanjis*
known by the honorific “Dhū al-Saʿādāt.”

He served as vizier in Baghdad for the sultan Abū Kālijār for three years. He possessed abundant learning (1), an extensive command of language, a brilliant epistolary style, and an exceptional hand in calligraphy.

His grandfather had also been among the viziers, and the family traced its lineage back to Bahrām Jūr (2). He himself was a man of religion and murūʾa (nobility of character).

He died in captivity in Ramaḍān 440 AH, a little over fifty years of age.

417 – Ibn Ḥamdān, al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Taghlibī**

the unparalleled emir, deputy of Damascus on behalf of the Egyptians, the champion of the state and its sword, Abū