—among them grammar, genealogy, lexicography, the history of the Arabs and of the early peoples; and he was thoroughly at home in hadith studies.

Ibn Mākūlā said, “He was one of Ibn Battah’s companions. Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Tamīmī informed me that the master copy belonging to Ibn Battah of al-Baghawī’s Muʿjam came into his possession; it contains Ibn Barhān’s audition notation, and he read it to him on behalf of his two sons.

Ibn Mākūlā then observed: ‘With his death, the knowledge of Arabic left Baghdad. He was one of (1) the few who really knew genealogy—I have never seen his like. He was a Ḥanafī: he studied jurisprudence, took up dialectical theology with Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī, advanced in it, and eventually formed his own legal preferences (2).

He used to walk through the markets bare-headed and would accept nothing from anyone (3).

He died in Jumada al-Ākhira of the year four hundred and fifty-six (4) AH, having lived past eighty.

He inclined toward the Murjiʾī branch of the Muʿtazilites and believed that the unbelievers would not remain eternally in the Fire (5).

Yāqūt mentioned him in Al-Udabāʾ (6), saying: ‘I transcribed from the handwriting of ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Wahbān, who wrote: “I copied from the autograph of Abū Bakr ibn al-Sammʿānī: I heard al-Mubārak ibn …”’