There is also another, later scholar known as al-Māzarī (1) who settled in Alexandria and composed a commentary on al-Irshād (2), which he entitled al-Mihād.
As for the subject of the present biography, he wrote a treatise refuting al-Iḥyāʾ, exposing its weak arguments and philosophical digressions; in this work he was scrupulously fair—may Allah have mercy on him.
65 – Al-Fatḥ ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khāqān al-Qaysī*
The eminent man of letters, author of Qalāʾid al-ʿIqyān (3). He is Abū Naṣr al-Fatḥ (4) ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh (5) ibn Khāqān al-Qaysī, from Seville.
In that book he collected a number of Maghribi poets and supplied their biographies.
He also authored Mulah Ahl al-Andalus (“The Anecdotes of the People of al-Andalus”).
(1) See al-Dibaj al-Mudhahhab, 2/252; Muʿjam al-Muʾallifin, 12/22.
(2) The reference is to al-Irshad fi Usul al-Din by Abu al-Maʿali al-Juwayni.
(*) Al-Kharida, section “Poets of the Maghrib and al-Andalus”, 3/538–548; Muʿjam al-Udaba, 16/186–192; Muʿjam Ibn al-Abbar, 313; al-Maghrib, 1/259–260; Wafayat al-Aʿyan, 4/23–24; al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bashar, 3/15; Tatimmat al-Mukhtasar, 2/69; Masalik al-Absar, 11/394; al-Ihata, 4/248–253; Nafh al-Tib, 7/29, 33, 36; Kashf al-Zunun, 1354; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 4/107; Idah al-Maknun, 1/168; Hadiyyat al-ʿArifin, 1/814; Muʿjam al-Matbuʿat al-ʿArabiyya, 1434; Brockelmann, Geschichte, 6/106–108 (Arabic edition); Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2/86.
(3) Cited in Mahasin al-Aʿyan. See also Muʿjam al-Udaba, 16/187–188, which relates that anyone who won his favour with a gift received lavish praise and description in the book, whereas those who ignored him were satirised and vilified. The work has appeared in several printed editions. A concise abridgement was produced by Ibn Fadl Allah al-ʿUmari (d. 749/1349). Al-ʿuqyan, with a kasra on the ʿayn, means pure gold.
(4) Al-Ihata records the name as al-Fath b. ʿAli b. Ahmad b. ʿUbayd Allah; this is how it appears in the base manuscript, yet all other biographical sources read: ʿUbayd Allah.
(6) The work is entitled Matmah al-Anfus wa-Masrah al-Taʾnnis fi Mulah Ahl al-Andalus; it is arranged in three parts: (i) select accounts of viziers together with the pearls of writers and orators; (ii) the excellences of leading scholars and eminent judges and jurists; (iii) the literary merits of men of letters. It