al-Qutabi (1) in a recitation whose accuracy and speed I had never heard equaled. A number of distinguished scholars were present, hoping to catch a single slip of his tongue, but they never succeeded.
Ibn al-Najjar said: “Ibn al-Khashshab learned arithmetic and geometry from Abu Bakr, the judge of the Bimaristan, and he studied the laws of inheritance with Abu Bakr al-Mazrafi (2). He was reliable, though his religious practice was not particularly outstanding. I have read in Shaykh al-Muwaffaq’s own handwriting:
‘Ibn al-Khashshab was the foremost authority of his age in the science of Arabic. I attended many of his gatherings, but could not study with him extensively because of the press of crowds around him. He spoke well about the Sunnah and its explanation (3).’
Ibn al-Akhdar said: “I was with him in the company of a group of Hanbalis when Makki al-Gharrad (4) asked him, ‘Do you have the book al-Jibal (The Mountains)?’ He replied, ‘You fool! What do you think all these are around me (5)?’”
(1) The person meant is Abu Muhammad ‑- Abdullah ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba al-Dinawari (d. 276 AH/889 CE), the famous imam and man of letters; see vol. 13, no. 138. In Ibn Rajab’s Tabaqat, 1/317, his nisba is misread as “al-Muqtafi,” which misleadingly suggests that the caliph al-Muqtafi studied Ibn Qutayba’s Gharib al-Hadith with Ibn al-Khashshab. Further references: Inba al-Ruwat, 2/101-102; al-Mustafad, 136.
(2) Pronounced with fatḥa on the mīm, sukūn on the zāy, fatḥa on the rāʾ and ending with a fāʾ: al-Mazrafi, from the village of al-Mazrafa, a large settlement near Baghdad. The nisba is corrupted to “al-Marzuqi” in Muʿjam al-Udaba, 12/49, and to “al-Mazraqi” (with qāf) in Bughyat al-Wuʿat, 2/29. See also al-Mushtabih, 587; Tabsir al-Muntabih, 4/1361; al-Lubab, 3/203; and Ibn Nuqtah’s Istidrak, section “al-Mazrafi/al-Mazrafan,” where his biography appears.
(3) See Ibn Rajab, Tabaqat, 1/316-317. Ibn Rajab adds (1/319): the hafiz Abu Muhammad al-Akhdar, when citing him, would say, “Hujjat al-Islam Abu Muhammad Ibn al-Khashshab narrated to us,” and Shaykh Muwaffaq al-Din al-Maqdisi adopts the same wording in his works. Ibn al-Khashshab was trustworthy in hadith transmission—reliable, authoritative, and distinguished.
(4) In al-Mushtabih, 450, the author vocalises the word with a dotted ghayn, a doubled rāʾ, and a dāl after the alif. In Ibn Rajab’s Tabaqat, 1/321, it is misprinted as “al-Qarad” (with qāf), and the title of the book al-Jibal is likewise corrupted to al-Khiyal.
(5) For additional details see Muʿjam al-Udaba, 12/50, and Bughyat al-Wuʿat, 2/30.