19 – al-Saqlatunī, Abū Shākir Yaḥyā ibn Yūsuf al-Baghdādī*
The shaykh Abū Shākir Yaḥyā ibn Yūsuf al-Baghdādī, known as al-Saqlatunī(1), a baker by profession, and also referred to as “the associate of Ibn Balān.”
He narrated ḥadith from Thābit ibn Bundār, al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Busrī, al-Mubārak ibn al-Ṭuyūrī, and a number of others.
Those who reported from him include Shaykh al-Muwaffaq, Ibn al-Akhdar, al-Bahāʾ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, al-Mubārak ibn ʿAlī al-Muṭarriz, Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn al-Jumayzī, and others.
He died in Shaʿbān of the year 573 AH, at a venerable age.
20 – Shamlah the Turkmen**
The self-proclaimed sultan who seized the dominion of Persia.
He constructed fortresses, ruled unjustly, rebelled, and gained the upper hand over the Seljuq authority, and he would openly display
(*) Ibn al-Dubaythi records his biography in his History, as cited in al-Mukhtasar al-muhtaj ilayh, 3/252; al-Dhahabi does the same in al-ʿIbar, 4/218. The notice is absent from al-Dhahabi’s Tarikh al-Islam (Topkapi MS Ahmet III 2917/14) after folio 51. Ibn al-ʿImad also includes it, 4/246.
(1) Dr. Mustafa Jawad, drawing on the Dutch orientalist Dozy’s Dhayl al-muʿjamāt al-ʿarabiyya, quotes the definition of saqlatun as “a kind of silk brocade woven with gold; originally Byzantine, yet Baghdad became renowned for producing it,” and notes that the term passed into European languages (note to al-Mukhtasar al-muhtaj ilayh, 3/252). The editors of al-Nujum al-zahira were mistaken, however, when they wrote that al-saqlatuni is “derived from Saqlatun, a Byzantine town where crimson-dyed garments were made.”
(**) His career is covered in the major chronicles of his time, especially volume 11 of Ibn al-Athir’s al-Kamil. Further notices appear in Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Muntazam, 10/255; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, fol. 35 (Ahmet III 2917/14) and al-ʿIbar, 4/211; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya, 12/291; and elsewhere. Al-Dhahabi adds another entry in Tarikh al-Islam, fol. 36 (same manuscript).