Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman, the ḥāfiẓ, informed us (1); Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Ṣayqal informed us; Yaḥyā ibn al-Rabīʿ informed us in the year 600 AH, in Baghdad; Abu Saʿd Muhammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Shāfiʿī informed us; Abu Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Mulqabādhī dictated to us; Abu Ḥassān Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us; Abu ʿAmr ibn Maṭar informed us; Ḥāmid ibn Shuʿayb narrated to us; Surayj narrated to us; Rauḥ ibn ʿUbādah narrated to us; Saʿīd narrated to us, from Qatādah, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Burdah, from his father, from Abū Mūsā:
Two men disputed over a camel, neither of them possessing any proof, so the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—adjudicated that it be divided equally between them. (2)
He was killed by the Ghuzz—may no blessing rest upon them—when they sacked Nishapur, in Ramadan of the year 548 AH. ʿAlī ibn Abī al-Qāsim al-Bayhaqī composed an elegy for him, saying:
O spiller of the blood of a fathom-deep scholar,
whose fame had soared to the farthest realms!
By Allah, tell me, O tyrant, and do not fear:
how can you put to death one who gave life to the faith? (3)
Another poet, on Muḥyi al-Dīn ibn Yaḥyā—may Allah sanctify his soul—said:
The scattered remains (4) of religion and Islam revive
through Muḥyi al-Dīn, our master Ibn Yaḥyā;
as though Allah, Lord of the Throne, were casting
revelation upon him whenever he delivers the lesson. (5)