234 – al-Shāshī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn *
The imam, erudite scholar, shaykh of the Shāfiʿīs, jurist of his age, and Pride of Islam—Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿUmar al-Shāshī (1), a Turk by origin—authored al-Mustazharī on the Shāfiʿī school, along with other works.
Birth: He was born in Mayyāfāriqīn in 429 AH. There he studied jurisprudence under the city’s judge Abū Manṣūr al-Ṭūsī and under Imām Muḥammad ibn Bayān al-Kāzrunī. He later travelled to Baghdad, attached himself to Abū Isḥāq, became his assistant instructor, and read the book al-Shāmil to its author (2).
He transmitted hadith from his teacher al-Kāzrunī, from Thābit ibn Abī al-Qāsim al-Khayyāṭ, Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb, Hayyāj ibn ʿUbayd al-Mujāwir, and several others.
(*) For his biography see: Ibn Asakir, Tabyin kadhib al-muftari, pp. 306–307; Ibn al-Jawzi, Al-Muntazam, 9/179; Ibn al-Athir, Al-Kamil, 10/500; Ibn al-Salah, Tabaqat, fol. 2; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-ayan, 4/219–221; Abu’l-Fida, Al-Mukhtasar fi akhbar al-bashar, 2/22; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 4/181 (sect. 2); idem, Duwal al-Islam, 2/36; idem, Al-Ibar, 4/13; idem, Tadhkirat al-huffaz, 4/1241; Ibn al-Najjar, Al-Mustafad min dhayl Tarikh Baghdad, 3–4; Tatimmat al-Mukhtasar, 2/37; al-Safadi, Al-Wafi bi’l-wafayat, 2/73–74; Uyun al-tawarikh, 13/285–286; Mirat al-jinnan, 3/194–195; al-Subki, Tabaqat al-shafi‘iyya, 6/70–78; al-Isnawi, Tabaqat al-shafi‘iyya, 2/86–87; Ibn Kathir, Al-Bidaya, 12/177–178; Ibn Qadi Shuhba, Tabaqat al-shafi‘iyya, 1/323; Al-Nujum al-zahira, 5/206; Ibn Hidayat Allah, Asma al-rijal, fol. 64/2, and Tabaqat, p. 72; Katib Celebi, Kashf al-zunun, cols. 401, 690, 1025; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-dhahab, 4/16–17; Ismaʿil Pasha, Hadiyat al-ʿarifin, 2/81.
(1) The nisba “al-Shashi” refers to Shash, a distinguished Islamic city in the province of Samarqand beyond the River Sayhun, bordering Turkic lands. It governs surrounding villages, lies on a broad plain without hills, is rich in orchards and pleasure-grounds, and today falls within the Soviet Union.
(2) Abu Nasr ʿAbd al-Sayyid b. Muhammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahid b. Ahmad b. Jaʿfar, known as Ibn al-Sabbagh (d. 477 AH), appears above in §18, no. 238. Concerning his legal compendium Al-Shamil, Ibn Khallikan (3/217) writes: “It is among the finest works of our school, the soundest in transmission and the most firmly argued.”