= Abu Bakr al-Burujirdi relates that he heard Imam Muhammad al-Shaqani say: “Our town is called Shaqan, with the sheen in the kasrah. It consists of two mountains; in each there is a fissure from which the water of the district issues, hence the name al-Shaqan (the two clefts).” His biography appears under no. 178. (1) His biography will be given under no. 184. (2) His biography will be given under no. 260. (3) The nisbah Balasaghuni refers to Balasaghun, a frontier town of the Turks beyond the River Sayhun, near Kashghar. Abu Abd Allah studied in Baghdad under Qadi Abu Abd Allah al-Damghani, reading with him the jurisprudence of Abu Hanifah. He then travelled to Syria and became judge in Damascus, but his conduct in office was censured. Ibn Asakir reports: “I heard al-Husayn ibn Qubays disparaging him and quoting him as saying, ‘If authority were mine I would levy the jizyah on the Shafi‘is.’” He died in Damascus, Jumada al-Akhirah 506 AH. References: al-Ansab 2/352; Mizan al-I‘tidal 4/51–52; al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat 5/87–88; al-Jawahir al-Mudiyyah 2/135; Mirat al-Zaman, p. 44; Mu‘jam al-Buldan, s.v. Balasaghun. (*) Su’alat al-Salafi, pp. 30–31; al-Istidrak, fol. 103b; al-Tabsir 1/346. (4) Ibn Masarhad al-Asadi al-Basri, the hafiz who died in 228 AH; his Musnad remains unpublished. Hafiz Ibn Hajar incorporated its additional material into al-Matalib al-‘Aliyah, edited by the muhaddith Shaykh Habib al-Rahman al-A‘zami and published in Kuwait (1393 AH) by the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs. (5) Al-Hawzi, in Su’alat al-Salafi, p. 31.