Al-Muʾtaman al-Sājī spoke against him, and ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Anmāṭī declared, “A liar.” (1) Another view holds that he was born in the year 494 AH. He passed away, at the very beginning of 482 AH, in Baghdad (2).
308 – Ibn Abī al-Shakhbāʾ, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-ʿAsqalānī *
A pre-eminent scholar, the eloquent orator of his age, the accomplished shaykh, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Abī al-Shakhbāʾ al-ʿAsqalānī, famed for his sermons and formal correspondence (3).
People say that the distinguished judge al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil relied largely on memorizing his speeches (4). Al-ʿImād, in his notice on al-Mujīd, remarks: “He was truly mujīd, as his laqab indicates—able to fashion and coin speech at will.”
He was executed in Egypt while still in prison, in 482 AH (5).
(1) Al-Muntazam, vol. 9, p. 52.
(2) The works he composed are cited by the author of Al-Jawahir al-Mudiyyah, vol. 2, p. 9.
(*) Principal biographical sources: Al-Dhakhira, fol. 4, ms. 2, pp. 627-661; Al-Kharida (section on the ‘Asqalaniyyun, within the portion on Egyptian poets), fol. 14, Paris ms. no. 3328; Muʿjam al-Udabaʾ, vol. 9, pp. 152-184; Wafayat al-Aʿyan, vol. 2, pp. 89-91; Al-Wafi bil-Wafayat, vol. 12, pp. 68-70; Hadiyyat al-ʿArifin, vol. 1, p. 277; Aʿyan al-Shiʿa, vol. 23, p. 146.
(3) Muʿjam al-Udabaʾ, vol. 9, p. 152, gives his name as al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Samad.
(4) The anecdote is reported in Muʿjam al-Udabaʾ, vol. 9, p. 152, and in Wafayat al-Aʿyan, vol. 2, p. 89; al-Safadi rejects this claim in Al-Wafi bil-Wafayat, vol. 12, p. 69. – Al-Qadi al-Fadil here is the littérateur Abu ʿAli ʿAbd al-Rahim ibn ʿAli ibn al-Hasan al-Lakhmi al-ʿAsqalani al-Misri, vizier of Sultan al-Malik al-Nasir Salah al-Din, d. 596 H. His biography will appear in vol. 21, no. 179.
(5) The report is also in Wafayat al-Aʿyan, vol. 2, p. 89 ff.; the printed Muʿjam al-Udabaʾ mistakenly records his death year as 432. Samples of his verse may be found in the cited biographical works.