and the various branches of lexicography.
He also penned Kitāb al-Daʿawāt (Supplications), Kitāb al-Maghāzī (Military Campaigns), Kitāb al-Ighrāb fī al-Iʿrāb (Uncommon Constructions in Syntax), Kitāb Tafsīr al-Nabī (1) (the Prophet’s Tafsīr, peace be upon him), and Kitāb Nafy al-Taḥrīf ʿani l-Qurʾān al-Sharīf (2) (Refuting the Charge of Distortion against the Noble Qur’an).
For a time he occupied the teacher’s chair, and his stature grew great.
It was said that he let his tongue run too freely against a group of scholars in a manner unbecoming, and he pronounced takfīr upon the author of Ḥaqāʾiq al-Tafsīr (3); for that he may be excused.
He also composed polished poetry (4).
He said about himself (5): “I studied language under Abū al-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-ʿArūḍī—he was in his nineties.”
He transmitted from al-Azhari his Tahdhīb on
…in Baghdad. Katib Chalabi (Haji Khalifa) judges it to be the most useful and beneficial of all commentaries, saying that none of the author’s many glosses rivals it.
(1) Shadharat al-dhahab, quoting Ibn Qadi Shuhba, calls the work Tafsir Asma al-Nabi (Exegesis of the Prophet’s Names).
(2) The author also wrote al-Wasit fi al-Amthal (The Intermediate Book of Proverbs), edited by Dr. Afif Muhammad Abd al-Rahman and published in Kuwait in 1975; the editor lists further titles, which may be consulted there.
(3) The book’s subject is by the imam Abu Abd al-Rahman Muhammad b. al-Husayn al-Sulami al-Nisaburi (d. 412/1021). His biography appears in volume 17, no. 152, where al-Dhahabi’s detailed opinion of this work is recorded.
(4) Among his verses:
“The world grew hideous and exposed its blemishes;
Though the earth is vast, it felt narrow to me.
Daylight itself darkened in my eyes
At the parting of one who left me robbed of four—
My heart, my life, my joy, and my sleep;
Should he return, everything would return: companionship, ease, and tranquillity.”
Maʿjam al-udabaʾ 12:262. Additional poems are in Dumyat al-qasr 2:1018–1020 and Inbaʾ al-ruwat 2:224.
(5) According to Yaqut, this is stated in the introduction to his Basit; for the fuller report see Maʿjam al-udabaʾ 12:262 ff.