Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (20/351)

He lived a little over eighty years and died in 558 AH.

It is related that al-Hariri once sent him a short note, to which he replied:

“Welcome to the one who offered me a page—
I clasped it with my soul, not with my hand.
It broke forth, and its wafting breaths diffused
Like musk whose breeze is laced with wine.”

Al-Hariri then wrote back in answer to these lines: “The chroniclers spoke the truth: Anbar is indeed the mine from which fine writing is quarried.”

239 – al-Labbad, Abu al-Hasan (1) ʿAli ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad *
The shaykh and hadith transmitter Abu al-Hasan ʿAli ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-ʿAbbās al-Asbahani, known as al-Labbad.

He heard hadith from Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Mājah, Rizq Allah al-Tamimi, Rajaʾ ibn Qaulawayh, al-Raʾis al-Thaqafi, and Abu Nasr al-Simsar, and he held a sound ijāzah from Abu Bakr ibn Khalaf the littérateur.

Maʿmar ibn al-Fākher selected from his narrations a fascicle.

Among those who transmitted from him were Muḥammad ibn Makkī and the scholars of that region. No uninterrupted chain of his narrations has reached us, yet by general authorization he was narrated from by Ibn al-Lattī, Karīmah, and others.

He passed away in Shawwal, 560 AH, having reached his nineties.

(*) Al-Ibar, vol. 4, p. 171; al-Nujum al-Zahira, vol. 5, p. 370; Shadharat al-Dhahab, vol. 4, p. 189. (1) Shadharat al-Dhahab gives the kunya as Abu al-Husayn.

وَعَاشَ: نَيِّفاً وَثَمَانِيْنَ سَنَةً. تُوُفِّيَ: سَنَةَ ثَمَانٍ وَخَمْسِيْنَ وَخَمْسِ مائَةٍ. حكَى أَنَّ الحَرِيْرِيَّ كَتَبَ إِلَيْهِ رُقعَةً، قَالَ: فَأَجبتُهُ: أَهْلاً بِمَنْ أَهدَى إِلَيَّ صَحِيْفَةً ... صَافَحْتُهَا بِالرُّوحِ لاَ بِالرَّاحِ وَتَبَلَّجَتْ فَتَأَرَّجَتْ نَفحَاتُهَا ... كَالمِسْكِ شِيْبَ نَسِيْمُهُ بِالرَّاحِ فَكَتَبَ إِلَى جَوَابِ هَذِهِ: لَقَدْ صَدَقَتْ رُوَاةُ الأَخْبَارِ: أَنَّ معدِنَ الكِتَابَةِ الأَنبارُ. ٢٣٩ - اللَّبَّادُ أَبُو الحَسَنِ عَلِيُّ بنُ أَحْمَدَ بنِ مُحَمَّدٍ * الشَّيْخُ، المُسْنِدُ، أَبُو الحَسَنِ (١) عَلِيُّ بنُ أَحْمَدَ بنِ مُحَمَّدِ بنِ أَبِي العَبَّاسِ الأَصْبَهَانِيُّ، اللَّبَّادُ. سَمِعَ: أَبَا بَكْرٍ مُحَمَّدَ بنَ أَحْمَدَ بنِ مَاجَه، وَرِزْقَ اللهِ التَّمِيْمِيَّ، وَرَجَاءَ بنَ قَوْلويه، وَالرَّئِيْسَ الثَّقَفِيَّ، وَأَبَا نَصْرٍ السِّمْسَارَ، وَلَهُ إِجَازَةٌ صَحِيْحَةٌ مِنْ أَبِي بَكْرٍ بنِ خَلَفٍ الأَدِيْبِ. انتخبَ عَلَيْهِ مَعْمَرُ بنُ الفَاخرِ (جُزْءاً) . حَدَّثَ عَنْهُ: مُحَمَّدُ بنُ مَكِّيٍّ، وَأَهْلُ تِلْكَ الدِّيَارِ. وَلَمْ يَقعْ لَنَا حَدِيْثُهُ مُتَّصِلاً. وَرَوَى عَنْهُ بِالإِجَازَةِ: ابْنُ اللَّتِّيِّ، وَكَرِيْمَةُ، وَغَيْرُهُمَا. تُوُفِّيَ: فِي شَوَّالٍ، سَنَةَ سِتِّيْنَ وَخَمْسِ مائَةٍ، وَكَانَ مِنْ أَبْنَاءِ التِّسْعِيْنَ.

(*) العبر ٤ / ١٧١، النجوم الزاهرة ٥ / ٣٧٠، شذرات الذهب ٤ / ١٨٩. (١) في " الشذرات ": أبو الحسين.