Abu ʿAmr ibn al-Ṣalāḥ said, “The hardship he brought upon himself proved harmful to him.” (1)
I add: He is an authoritative reference for the transmission of Arabic, and he composed a work entitled al-ʿĀlam fī al-lughah (“The Universe in Language”) in roughly one hundred volumes, beginning with al-falak (the celestial sphere) and ending with al-dharrāh (the smallest particle). (2)
He also wrote Shawādh al-lughah (“Irregular Usages of the Language”) in five volumes. (3)
He lived under the patronage of the emir Mujāhid al-ʿĀmirī. (4)
79 – Ibn Mihrabzud Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Isfahānī
The shaykh, the erudite scholar, grammarian, Qurʾanic exegete and Muʿtazilite: Abū Muslim Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Mihrabzud al-Isfahānī, author of al-Tafsīr al-kabīr, which runs to twenty volumes.
He was the last person in Isfahān to relate hadith from Abū Bakr ibn al-Muqrīʾ.
The ḥadith master Yaḥyā ibn Manda said, “He was well-versed in grammar and extreme in his adherence to the Muʿtazilite doctrine.”
(1) See Lisan al-Mizan, vol. 4, p. 206.
(2) al-dhurra: the tiny ant.
(3) He also authored al-Mukhassas, a monumental linguistic encyclopedia that has become a standard reference in its field. It was printed in seventeen volumes at the Bulaq Government Press between 1316 and 1321 AH. For his other works, consult Muʿjam al-Udabaʾ, vol. 12, pp. 232-233, and Hadiyyat al-ʿArifin, vol. 1, p. 691.
(4) See Jadhwat al-Muqtabis, p. 311.
(*) Principal biographical sources: Inbah al-Ruwat 3/194-195; al-Mughni fi al-Duʿafaʾ 2/618; al-ʿIbar 3/245; Mizān al-Iʿtidal 3/655; Duwal al-Islam 1/269; Talkhis Ibn Maktum, p. 226; Mirʾat al-Janan 3/83; al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat 4/130-131; Lisan al-Mizan 5/298-299; Suyuti, Tabaqat al-Mufassirin, p. 32; Bughyat al-Wuʿat 1/188; Dawudi, Tabaqat al-Mufassirin 2/211; Shadharat al-Dhahab 3/307.
The place-name appears in the base manuscript as “Muharbazd” (with kasra on mīm, sukun on hāʾ, fatha on rāʾ, sukun on bāʾ, ḍamma on zāy, followed by dāl), whereas Inbah al-Ruwat, Bughyat al-Wuʿat, and Tabaqat al-Mufassirin read it as “Mharayazd.”