(*) Mentioned by: Sualat al-Salafi li-Khamis al-Hawzi, p. 72; al-Ansab, 2/136; al-Muntazam, 9/144; al-Lubab, 1/135; al-Ibar, 3/350; Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 4/1232; al-Mustafad min Dhayl Tarikh Baghdad, pp. 67-68; al-Wafi bi-l-wafayat, 7/322; Uyun al-Tawarikh, vol. 13, fol. 139; Dhayl Tabaqat al-Hanabila, 1/94-95; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 3/408. (1) Both al-Samani and Yaqut vocalise the nisba with an open b (bardani), in agreement with our base manuscript, whereas Ibn al-Athir alone, in al-Lubab, gives it with a closed b (burdani). The name goes back to Bardan, a village about seven parasangs from Baghdad near Sarifin. Jahdhat al-Barma refers to it in verse: Drive sorrow from your soul with coffee-wine long stored in the tavern of the wine-seller; It has outlived generations and, when tasted, seems to prolong life itself. It is carried by an effeminate, languid-eyed servant whose cheeks overflow with youthful freshness, Through Bardan’s delicate air, amid farms ringed with violet and spikenard. A land whose summer is like its autumn— humid at sunset, cool before dawn. (2) The word is read with damma on the un-dotted ‘ayn and fatha on the dotted shin: ‘Ashari. It was the nickname of the subject’s ancestor Abu Talib, so called because of his great height, from the expression thawb ‘ashari, “a ten-cubit garment.” The biographee heard hadith from al-‘Ashari when he was only eight years old: born in 426/1035 CE, his first audition took place in 433 AH, as recorded in Ibn Rajab’s Dhayl Tabaqat al-Hanabila, 1/94.