27 – ʿAḍud al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hibat Allāh al-Baghdādī*

The vizier of Iraq, the peerless, the exalted ʿAḍud al-Dīn, Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Muẓaffar—grandson of the great minister, the “chief of the chiefs,” Abū al-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn al-Muslima al-Baghdādī—was born in 514 AH.

He received hadith from Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥuṣayn, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Bayhaqī, and Zāhir ibn Ṭāhir.

Those who narrated from him include his grandson Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī and others.

As an ustādh he served as dāriyya—overseer of the household—for the caliphs al-Muqtafī and al-Mustanjid, and later held the vizierate for the Imam al-Mustaḍīʾ.

He was open-handed, noble, awe-inspiring, and of lofty rank.

Al-Muwaffaq ʿAbd al-Laṭīf reports: “Whenever he weighed out gold, he would scatter abundant clippings beneath the reed mats so that the attendants might gather them. He never saw any of our boys without placing a dinar in his hand. Two of his sons behaved the same way—Kamāl al-Dīn and ʿImād al-Dīn.”

He adds: “My father remained in his company for the recitation of the Quran and the hadith. Al-Mustaḍīʾ appointed him vizier the very moment he was acclaimed, and his authority soon became firmly established, while al-Mustaḍīʾ himself was generous and compassionate…"