—among them a work on the variant Qur’an readings. Some of its contents were challenged and he was harshly criticized for them, but I later learned that he had withdrawn those opinions. I wrote under him and copied down a selection of his poems (1).

Ahmad ibn Salih mentioned him, lauded him in the strongest terms, and said, “In his fields of learning he left behind no equal” (2).

Abu’l-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi (3) remarked, “I have never seen a larger assembly than the one that gathered for his funeral.”

ʿAbd Allah ibn Jarir al-Qurashi reported: “He was buried at Bab Harb, beside his grandfather Abu Mansur, on the platform adjoining Imam Ahmad. The crowd was beyond all reckoning; most of the city was shut down” (4).

He passed away on the twenty-second of Rabiʿ al-Akhir in the year 541 AH.

I add: In that same year the eminent scholar, the unparalleled ocean of learning, the Qur’an exegete Abu Muhammad ʿAbd al-Haqq (5) ibn Ghalib ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ghalib ibn Tammam ibn ʿAtiyya al-Muharibi, the Andalusian from Granada, author of the celebrated Tafsir, also died—at sixty-one years of age.

Ibn al-Najjar stated: “He studied Arabic literature with Abu’l-Karam ibn Fakhr and remained in his company for about twenty years, during which time he read to him the Kitab of Sibawayh, the commentary on it by al-Sirafi, al-Muhtasib by Ibn Jinni, al-Muqtadab by al-Mubarrad, and al-Usul by Ibn …”