An ascetic, he taught for many years at the Sharf al-Mulk madrasa. He corresponded with the kings of the frontier regions, and he was appointed naqīb for both the Abbasid and the Talibid families; after a few months he asked to be relieved, whereupon his brother Ṭirād assumed the office. He had studied jurisprudence under the Chief Judge Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Dāmaghānī. The poet al-Ghazzī composed an ode (1) in his praise. He honoured strangers, knew the school thoroughly, and possessed impressive dignity.

He died in Ṣafar, 512 AH. Thus all four brothers happened to die within the early years of the sixth century, a rarity.

Ibn al-Najjar said: “He issued legal opinions and taught in the school founded by Sharf al-Mulk (2) Abū Saʿd. He simultaneously held the naqība of the Abbasids and the Talibids at the beginning of 452 AH, remained in it for a time, and then asked to be relieved. He was noble-spirited, strong in religion, abundant in knowledge—the leading Ḥanafī and ascetic of his day, the jurist of the Banū al-ʿAbbās and their monk. He enjoyed great prestige with the caliphs.”

Al-Sillafī said: “I asked the ḥāfiẓ Shujāʿ about Abū Ṭālib al-Zaynabī, and he replied, ‘An imam, a learned teacher, one of the followers of Abū Ḥanīfa; in Mecca he heard the Ṣaḥīḥ from Karīmah (1).’”