al-Ḥaramayn. He mastered the methodology of the Shāfiʿī school and the arts of debate, rose to prominence, attained great stature, and his name became renowned.

He performed the pilgrimage and, while in Baghdad, delivered sermons in which he displayed extreme partisanship for the Ashʿarīs (1) and disparaged the Hanbalīs. The unrest then flared up in full force, the crisis deepened, and Abū Saʿd Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣūfī rolled up his sleeves in earnest; the affair reached the point where swords were drawn, Baghdad fell into turmoil, and the first sparks of calamity appeared.

He undertook a second pilgrimage and resumed teaching, while the strife was still boiling in its cauldrons. The authorities wrote to Niẓām al-Mulk, asking him to summon Abū Naṣr ibn al-Qushayrī to the court to extinguish the blaze. When he arrived, Niẓām al-Mulk honored and exalted him and advised him to return to Nishapur. He did so and kept to the straight path.

Later he was invited to preach and teach; he accepted, but soon his influence waned, his body weakened, and he was struck with paralysis. His tongue was immobilized—save for the remembrance of Allah—for about a month, after which he died.

He heard ḥadith from Abū Ḥafṣ ibn Masrūr, Abū ʿUthmān al-Ṣābūnī, ʿAbd al-Ghāfir al-Fārisī, Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Naqqūr, Saʿd ibn ʿAlī al-Zanjānī, Abū al-Qāsim al-Mahruwānī, and many others.

Among those who narrated from him were his grandson Abū Saʿd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Ṣaffār, Abū al-Futūḥ al-Ṭāʾī, the preacher of Mosul Abū al-Faḍl al-Ṭūsī, ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAlī al-Naysābūrī, and several others.

By written authorization, Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir and Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī also transmitted from him.