ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Anṣārī—originally from Shīrāz, born in Ḥarrān, and later settled in Damascus—was a Hanbalī jurist and preacher. In Iraq he was known as al-Maqdisī, and he was counted among the leading Imams of Islam.

He studied under Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Simsār, Shaykh al-Islam Abū ʿUthmān al-Ṣābūnī (1), ʿAbd al-Razzaq ibn al-Faḍl al-Kalāʿī, and a number of other scholars in Damascus after 430 AH.

He later travelled to Baghdad, kept close company with the judge Abū Yaʿlā ibn al-Farrāʾ, and acquired his legal training from him. He taught, preached, propagated the school of Aḥmad throughout the districts of Bayt al-Maqdis, and authored several works (2).

Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Farrāʾ relates in Tabaqāt al-Ḥanābila (3): “He accompanied my father from the early 440s AH, visited him for many years, copied and re-copied his writings, travelled to al-Raḥba and greater Syria, and won for himself both followers and attendants.

“He enjoyed manifest karāmāt (saintly miracles), had a number of confrontations with the Ashʿarites, and prevailed over them by argument in the sultans’ assemblies in Syria.”