He died in Dhu al-Qaʿda, 550 AH (1).
His book preserves material that is found nowhere else.
219 – Abū al-Bayān Nabaʾ ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥfūẓ al-Qurashī *
The eminent exemplar, Abū al-Bayān Nabaʾ (2) ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥfūẓ al-Qurashī—the Ḥawrānī and later the Damascene—was a Shāfiʿī jurist, linguist, Atharī traditionalist, and ascetic. He served as the shaykh of the Bayaniyya fraternity and was known for his rhymed invocations.
He heard hadith from Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Mawāzinī and Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Qubays al-Mālikī.
Among those who transmitted from him were Yūsuf ibn Wafāʾ al-Sulamī, the jurist Aḥmad al-ʿIrāqī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbdān, and the judge Asʿad ibn al-Munajjā.
He was of exemplary conduct—dignified, devout, and pious—deeply attached to the Sunnah, to knowledge, and to literature. He attracted many followers and admirers. After his death, Sultan Nūr al-Dīn built for him a large ribāṭ near the Darb.
(1) Ibn Hidayat Allah’s Tabaqat dates his death to the year 549 AH.
(*) Main biographical sources: Ibn al-Qalanisi, Ta’rikh, p. 512; Yaqut, Muʿjam al-udabaʾ, 19/213-214; Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzi, Mirʾat al-zaman, 8/139; Ibn al-Najjar, al-Mushtabih, p. 122; al-Dhahabi, al-ʿIbar, 4/144-145; Ibn al-ʿImad, Mirʾat al-jinan, 3/298; al-Subki, Tabaqat, 7/318-320; al-Isnawi, Tabaqat, 1/234; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya, 12/235; Ibn Hajar, Tabsir al-muntabih, 1/221; al-Suyuti, Bughyat al-wuʿat, 2/312; Mukhtasar Tanbih al-talib, pp. 160-161; Ibn al-ʿAmad, Shadharat al-dhahab, 4/160; al-Zabidi, Taj al-ʿarus, 9/152 (entry b-y-n) and 10/355 (entry n-b-w); Ismaʿil Basha al-Baghdadi, Hadiyat al-ʿarifin, 2/489; Mukhtarat al-tawarikh, p. 481.
(2) The nisba is spelled with a nun followed by a baʾ, as recorded in al-Mushtabih (p. 122) and Tabsir al-muntabih (1/221). In Tabaqat al-Isnawi and al-Bidaya it was misread as “Bana” (with the baʾ first), and Mirʾat al-zaman further distorted it to “Bayan.” Muʿjam al-muʾallifin, 13/75, gives the correct form but repeats the corrupted “Bana” in 3/79 as if it referred to another person, although both entries concern the same scholar; this confusion should be noted.