The leadership of the school ultimately rested with him; many companions in Baghdad completed their training under his guidance, and he authored several works.
His book al-Ḥilya (1) sets out the points of disagreement among the scholars. It is the same work known as al-Mustazharī, for he composed it for the caliph al-Mustazhir billāh (2). After al-Ghazālī (3) he assumed the professorial chair at the Niẓāmiyya College, was later removed, and then, in 504 AH, returned to the post after al-Ikīyā al-Harrāsī. He also lectured at the school of Tāj al-Mulk, the vizier of Sultan Malikshāh.
Those who transmitted hadith from him include: Abū al-Maʿmar al-Azajī, ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Yazdī, Abū Bakr ibn al-Naqqūr, Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī, and the distinguished woman scholar Fakhr al-Nisāʾ Shahda.
He died in Shawwāl 507 AH and was buried beside his teacher Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī—some said in the same grave.
A number of his narrations have reached me.
Abū al-Qāsim Yūsuf al-Zanjānī said, “Abū Bakr al-Shāshī studied jurisprudence with us, and, on account of his devotion, piety, and asceticism, he used to be called ‘al-Junayd.’ May Allah, Exalted is He, have mercy upon him.”
(1) Muassasat al-Risala and Dar al-Arqam published the section on acts of worship in 1980, in three slim volumes, edited by Dr Yasin Daradkah under the title Hilyat al-ulama fi maʿrifat madhahib al-fuqaha (The Adornment of the Scholars in Knowing the Schools of the Jurists).
(2) The person meant is Abu al-Abbas Ahmad, son of al-Muqtadi bi-Amr Allah ʿAbd Allah, son of the Abbasid prince Muhammad (d. 512 / 1118). His full biography will appear below under no. 237.
(3) Ibn Khallikan (4/220) reports: “One of the shaykhs of our school told me that, on the day he was announced as lecturer, he placed his handkerchief over his eyes and wept profusely while seated on the platform customarily used by teachers, reciting:
‘Khalat al-diyaru fasudtu ghayra musawwad / wa-min al-balaʾi tafarrudi bi-s-suʾdudi’
‘The dwellings are deserted, so I have assumed a rank without being worthy; among my trials is bearing honor alone.’
He kept repeating this line and weeping—an act that shows his fairness and his acknowledgement of the superior merit of those who preceded him. I add: The lecturers of the Nizamiyya before Abu Bakr al-Shashi were Shaykh Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi, Abu Nasr ibn al-Sabbagh (author of al-Shamil), Abu Saʿd al-Mutawalli (author of Tatimmat al-Ibanah), and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali.