you please among the residents of the quarter, for they are exactly like the beast you are looking for.’ (1)
Ibn Sukkara said: “Shaydhala was the foremost of the preachers. He was an ascetic who lived on little, knew nothing of hadith criticism, and was a Shafi‘i.” (2)
I (the author) say: He died in Ṣafar, in the year 494 AH.
97 – Ibn Jahīr, Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad *
The consummate vizier, ‘Amīd al-Dawlah, Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad, son of the great minister al-Malik Fakhr al-Dawlah Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Jahīr. He first held the vizierate during his father’s lifetime and served three caliphs. The caliph al-Qāʾim commended him to his grandson al-Muqtadī and praised him highly. He was appointed vizier again in 472 AH, exercised full authority for five years, and was removed in favor of Abū Shujāʿ; then Abū Shujāʿ himself was dismissed in the year
(1) Al-Muntazam, vol. 9, p. 126, records that he once remarked in the presence of the naqib al-nuqaba Turad: “If a man swore that he would not set eyes on any human being, yet then met the people of Bab al-Azaj, his oath would remain intact.” The naqib retorted, “O slanderer! Whoever keeps company with a people for forty days becomes one of them.”
(2) Tabaqat al-Subki, vol. 5, p. 237, quoting Shahda bint Ahmad ibn al-Faraj al-Abri: “I heard the judge and imam Azizi ibn Abd al-Malik himself, in the year 490 AH, say: ‘O Allah, You whose forgiveness is boundless, You who extend both hands in mercy, deal with me as befits Your majesty. My Lord, I have sinned at certain times, yet I have believed in You at all times; how can the sinful part of my life outweigh the believing whole of it? My Lord, were You to demand my good deeds, I would surrender them to You though I am in desperate need of them, for I am Your servant; so how should I not hope that You will remit my bad deeds, when You have no need of them and You are the Lord? O You who granted us the best treasure in Your storehouses—faith in You—before we even asked, do not withhold from us the widest treasure in Your storehouses—pardon—now that we ask. My God, my only plea is my need, my only provision is my poverty; so have mercy on me. How could my sin bar me from supplicating, when I see that You do not let sin bar Your giving? If You forgive, You are the best of those who show mercy; if You punish, You are not unjust. My God, I beg You in humility, so grant to me out of Your bounty.’”
(*) Principal sources: Al-Muntazam, vol. 9, pp. 118–119; al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, vol. 10, pp. 298–299; al-Ibar, vol. 3, p. 337; al-Wafi bil-Wafayat, vol. 1, pp. 122–124; al-Nujum al-Zahira, vol. 5, pp. 165–166; Mu jam al-Ansab wa-l-Usar al-Hakima, vol. 9.