184 – al-Balkhī, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad

He is the scholar after whom the Balkhiyyah School⦗1⦘ at Bāb al-Barīd is named. He was the Imām Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Balkhī, a Ḥanafī who settled in Damascus and served as lecturer at the Ṣādiriyyah⦗2⦘.

He preached and taught, and the residence of the Amīr Ṭarkhān was converted into a madrasah⦗3⦘ for him. The Ḥanbalīs rose against him because he had spoken against them. Held in great esteem and prestige, he was known by the honorific “al-Burhān al-Balkhī.”

He also taught in the Khātūn Mosque⦗4⦘, and in Aleppo he abolished the inclusion of “ḥayya ʿalā khayri al-ʿamal” in the call to prayer. He studied in Bukhara under al-Burhān ibn Māza, engaged in disputations over contested issues, then performed the pilgrimage and took up residence near the Sacred Precinct, attracting many disciples.

He transmitted hadith from Abū al-Muʿīn al-Makḥūlī and others, and Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī recorded material from him.

He died in Damascus in Shaʿbān of 548 AH, and he was generous, never hoarding anything.