which in his case eventually led him to cough up blood (1).

Abū al-ʿAbbās Ibn al-ʿArīf said, “Ibn Ḥazm’s tongue and al-Ḥajjāj’s sword were twin brothers (2).”

Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ṭarkhān al-Turkī relates: the Imām Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Muḥammad—the father of Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī—told me:

“Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm informed me that the reason he began to study fiqh was this: he once attended a funeral. When he entered the mosque he sat down without praying, whereupon a man said to him, ‘Stand up and perform the greeting of the mosque.’

“At the time he was twenty-six years old.

“So I stood and prayed,” he continued, “but when we returned from the funeral prayer I re-entered the mosque and, eager to comply, rushed into bowing. I was told, ‘Sit down, sit down; this is not a time for prayer’—it was after ʿAṣr. I left saddened (3) and said to the teacher who had raised me, ‘Guide me to the home of the jurist Abū ʿAbd-Allāh Ibn Daḥḥūn.’

“So I went to him, told him what had happened, and he directed me to Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ. I began reading it with him and continued my studies with him and others for about three years, after which I took up disputation.

Ibn al-ʿArabī then said (4): “I accompanied Ibn Ḥazm for seven years and heard from him all of his works except the final volume of al-Faṣl, which comprises six volumes in all. In 456 AH we read with him four volumes of al-Isāl—which totals twenty-four volumes—and he granted me ijāza on more than one occasion (5).”