107 – al-Mutawallī, Abū Saʿd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Maʾmūn ibn ʿAlī *
The leading Shāfiʿī scholar, Abū Saʿd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn (1) Maʾmūn ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Abīwardī, known as al-Mutawallī, pursued his legal studies in Bukhara and elsewhere and was counted among the disciples of Qāḍī Ḥusayn. He was a foremost authority in jurisprudence and legal theory—quick-witted, skilled in debate, handsome, astute, and humble.
He completed al-Furānī’s book al-Ibānah, enlarging it to ten volumes (2), whereas the original work had comprised only two. Because of his stature he was styled “the Honor of the Imāms.”
Birth: Abīward, 427 AH.
Death: in Shawwāl, 478 AH (3).
Poets composed elegies lamenting him. After the death of Shaykh Abū Isḥāq he taught for a short time at the Niẓāmiyya (4), after which Ibn al-Ṣabbāgh was appointed in his place.
Many students acquired their training in law under him.
(*) Al-Muntazam, 9/18; Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, 10/146; Wafayat al-Ayan, 3/133–134; Tarikh al-Islam, 156; Duwal al-Islam, 2/8; Al-Ibar, 3/290; Al-Wafi (MS), 16/61–62; Mirat al-Jinan, 3/122–123; Tabaqat al-Subki, 5/106–108; Tabaqat al-Isnawi, 1/305–306; Al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 12/128; Tabaqat Ibn Qadi Shuhba, 1/264; Tabaqat Ibn Hidayat Allah; Kashf al-Zunun, 1/1251; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 3/358; Idah al-Maknun, 2/150.
(1) The additional sentence is missing from the base manuscript, yet it is indispensable, for every biographer records it.
(2) In Ibn Kathir’s Tabaqat, 1/85b: “He authored the Tatimma but did not finish it; he reached the section on judges, and several others completed it, although none of their additions matches his style.” Al-Adhraʿi remarks that the Tatimma manuscripts differ greatly. In Tabaqat al-Subki, p. 107: “He also wrote a Tatimma to his teacher al-Furani’s Ibanah; he reached the chapter on hudud (penal limits) and then died.”
(3) The base text reads “and ninety,” which is erroneous.
(4) Ibn Khallikan, 3/133: When Abu Saʿd succeeded Shaykh Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi as lecturer, the jurists objected to his reclining in that place and wanted him to show deference by sitting lower. Perceiving their intent, he said, “Know that I have rejoiced in only two things in my life: the first is that when I came from Transoxiana and entered Sarakhs wearing shabby clothes unlike those of scholars, I attended a session …