—namely, al-Muḥassin ibn ʿAlī al-Tanūkhī, a native of Basra who later settled in Baghdad, the author of Kitāb al-Ṭawālāt, and the son of the author of Kitāb al-Faraj baʿd al-Shiddah, Kitāb al-Nushwār, and other works.
He was born in Shaʿbān of the year 365 AH in Basra.
When he had completed his fifth year, he heard ḥadīth from ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al-Razzāz, ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Kaysān, Abū Saʿīd al-Ḥurfī, Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAskarī, ʿAbd Allah ibn Ibrāhīm al-Zabībī, Ibrāhīm ibn Aḥmad al-Khirqī, and many others.
Al-Khaṭīb (1) said: “He was scrupulous when testifying before judges, truthful in ḥadīth, and he assumed the judgeship of al-Madā’in, Qirmīsīn, and al-Baradān.”
Abū al-Faḍl ibn Khayrūn said: “It was said that his views inclined to rafḍ (Shiʿite rejectionism) and to iʿtizāl (Muʿtazilite theology).”
Shujāʿ al-Dhuhlī likewise said: “He was a Shīʿī and followed the doctrine of iʿtizāl.”
I say: He grew up under the Būyid dynasty, and its territories were rife with those two innovations.
It is reported that he kept company with Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, befriended him, and recited to him his Ṣaḥīḥ (2).
He died on the second of Muḥarram, 447 AH.
Among those who transmitted from him were Ubayy al-Narsī, al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Bāqarḥī, Nūr al-Hudā Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Zaynabī, Abū ʿAlī ibn al-Mahdī, and Abū Shujāʿ Bahrām ibn