the grandson of the Grand Qadi, Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAli ibn Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn Muqatil ibn Subayḥ ibn Rabiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Yazid ibn al-Muhallab ibn Abi Ṣufrah al-Azdi, al-Muhallabi, al-Harawi—the Shafiʿi jurist who ranked among the foremost authorities of the school.

He transmitted the Jamiʿ of al-Tirmidhi on the authority of ʿAbd al-Jabbar al-Jarraḥi.

Abu al-Naḍr al-Fami said: “A shaykh unmatched in asceticism, uprightness, and chastity; he remained so from the very start of his life until its close. Students travelled to him from every land, intent upon his chains of transmission (1). He was born in 400 AH.

Abu Jaʿfar ibn Abi ʿAli al-Hamadhani said: ‘Our teacher Abu ʿAmir was one of the pillars of the Shafiʿi school in Herat. Niẓam al-Mulk used to say, “Were it not for this imam in that town, we and they would have had a reckoning”—he was threatening them (2). He venerated him greatly, for the imam never accepted anything from him at all.’

When I heard the Jamiʿ (3) from him, Shaykh al-Islam Abu Ismaʿil (4) congratulated me, saying, ‘Your journey to Herat has not been wasted.’ Shaykh al-Islam had himself heard it long before, directly, and later heard it again from al-Jarraḥi (5).