and al-Turabī, as well as a circle of scholars in Marw; ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn al-Maʾmūn and his cohort in Baghdad; Abū Ṣāliḥ the muezzin, and others of similar standing in Nishapur; Abū ʿAlī al-Shāfiʿī; and Abū al-Qāsim al-Zanjānī (1) in Mecca. His foremost shaykh, however, was al-Kurāʿī. He mastered the school of Abū Ḥanīfa under his eminent father, the scholar Abū Manṣūr al-Samʿānī, and surpassed his peers.

Those who narrated from him were: his sons; ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad al-Sarkhasī; Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Fāshānī (2); Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Sinjī; Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad al-Taymī; Abū Naṣr al-Ghāzī; Abū Saʿd ibn al-Baghdādī; and many others.

He once set out for the pilgrimage overland in a year when the main caravan was cut off. He and a group of travelers were captured, yet he remained patient until Allah delivered him from the Bedouins. Afterward he completed the pilgrimage and kept company with al-Zanjānī.

He used to say: “They took us captive, and I was made to herd their camels. It so happened that their chieftain wished to marry (3) off his daughter, so they said, ‘We must travel to a town to find someone who can solemnize the contract for us.’

“One of our party said to them, ‘The man tending your camels is the jurist of Khurasan.’ They questioned me about certain matters; I answered them, addressing them in Arabic. They felt ashamed and apologized. I concluded the marriage contract for them and delivered the sermon; they rejoiced and asked me to accept a gift, but I declined. They then escorted me to Mecca in the middle of the year (4).”

ʿAbd al-Ghāfir said in his History: “In his time he was unparalleled—outstanding in excellence and conduct, asceticism and piety. He hailed from a household of learning and renunciation, studied jurisprudence under his father, and became one of…"