obedience to the caliphs. His rule lasted for more than twenty years. He branded the Kurds as innovators, and then set out to combat a Turkmen force. They appealed for help to al-Bahlawān, the ruler of Azerbaijan, and a large-scale engagement was fought. An arrow struck Shamlah, his army scattered, and he, together with his son and his nephew, was taken prisoner. His sovereignty came to an end, and he died two days later—an event that gladdened the Muslims. He died in 570 AH.

21 – al-Tusi, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad*

The jurist, leading scholar, and counsellor to the Muslims, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Qāsim al-Tusi, a Shafiʿi.

He transmitted hadith from ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Akhram, Naṣr Allah al-Khushnāmī, and al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid the merchant, all of whom were students of al-Ḥīrī.

We heard from him forty hadiths, which were written down for him by ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Tusi.

Among those who narrated from him are ʿUthmān ibn Abī Bakr al-Khubūshānī, Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṭāhir al-ʿAṭṭārī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Simnānī, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUbayd Allah al-Qushayrī, the lady al-Ḥurra Zaynab al-Shaʿriyya and her two sons al-Muʾayyad and Bībā—both children of al-Najīb Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī—the ḥadith master ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ruhāwī, and others. In his day he possessed the loftiest isnāds of anyone still living in Nishapur.

He died in 570 AH.