Al-Silafī said: “I asked Shujāʿ al-Dhuhlī about Ibn Mākūlā, and he replied, ‘He was a ḥāfiẓ (master memorizer of hadith), quick-witted, reliable, and the author of books on the science of hadith.’ (1)

Al-Muʾtaman al-Sājī, the ḥāfiẓ, remarked, ‘Ibn Mākūlā did not follow the scholars’ way, and thus reaped no benefit for himself.’ (2)

I say: he is hinting that Ibn Mākūlā lived in the style and comfort of the emirs.

The ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir related: “I heard Ismāʿīl al-Samarqandī mention that Ibn Mākūlā owned young Turkish servants who murdered him in Jurjān in the early seventies of the fifth century, that is, in the year seventy-odd, four hundred AH.” (3)

The ḥāfiẓ Ibn Nāṣir said: “The ḥāfiẓ Ibn Mākūlā was killed; he had travelled toward Kirmān with his Turkish mamluks, who slew him and seized his wealth in the year five and seventy and four hundred AH.” Ibn al-Najjār transmits the report in these very words. (4)

The ḥāfiẓ Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī stated: “I heard Ibn Nāṣir say: Ibn Mākūlā was killed in Ahwāz, either in the year six—or the year seven—and eighty and four hundred AH.” (5)

Al-Samʿānī further said: “He left Baghdad for Khūzistān and was slain there sometime after the eighties.” (6)

And the ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Faraj wrote in al-Muntaẓim: “He was killed in the year five—”