so he was obliged to leave Nishapur. He first went to the camp (al-Maʿaskar) and then to Baghdad, where for a time he accompanied the vizier Abū Nasr al-Kundūrī, making the rounds with him, meeting the leading scholars in his presence, and debating them. Through those encounters he became seasoned and refined, and his fame spread. He then performed the pilgrimage, remained in the Holy Cities for four years teaching, issuing legal opinions, and collating the various transmissions of the school. After the wave of fanaticism had passed (1) he returned to his homeland and taught at the Nizāmiyya College of Nishapur. Order was restored, and he kept that post for thirty years without rival or challenger; the miḥrāb, the pulpit, the Friday sermon, the teaching chair, and the circle of admonition on Fridays were all entrusted to him. His writings became widely known, the senior scholars and a great multitude of students attended his lectures—about three hundred would sit before him—and leading imams (2) studied jurisprudence under him.

Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad told us; the ḥadīth master Abū Muḥammad al-Mundhirī informed us, saying:

The father of Abū al-Maʿālī died, and he was installed in his place before he had completed twenty years. He began teaching and mastered legal theory under Abū al-Qāsim al-Iskāf (3). He resided in the Ḥaram and then returned … until he said:

He heard ḥadīth from Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Muzakkī, Abū Saʿd ibn ʿAllayk, Faḍl Allāh ibn Abī al-Khayr al-Mīhanī, and Abū Muḥammad al-Jawharī of Baghdad; the ḥadīth master Abū Nuʿaym granted him authorization, and he also heard from al-Ṭirāzī—so he stated.

Al-Samʿānī said: I read in the handwriting of Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAlī: I heard Abū Isḥāq al-Fīrūzābādī say, “Benefit from this Imām, for he is the adornment of this age”—meaning Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī—(4).