I add: Among those who related hadith from him were al-Bahāʾ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the judge of Ḥarrān Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh ibn Naṣr, Ḥamd ibn Ṣudayq, Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Muqayyar, and others.
He died in Rajab, 575 AH.
32 – Ibn al-ʿAṭṭār, Abū Bakr Manṣūr ibn Naṣr al-Ḥarrānī *
The courtier, the vizier, Ẓahīr al-Dīn Abū Bakr Manṣūr ibn Naṣr ibn al-ʿAṭṭār al-Ḥarrānī, later of Baghdad.
His father was among the foremost merchants.
Abū Bakr grew up, pursued legal studies, and heard hadith from Ibn Nāṣir and Ibn al-Zāghūnī.
When his father died, he left him a considerable fortune; Abū Bakr therefore opened his hand, mixed with the ruling class and the notables, spent generously, and established ties with al-Mustadīʾ before the latter’s accession to the caliphate. Once al-Mustadīʾ received the pledge of allegiance, he first appointed him to oversee the treasury, then put him in full charge of it while retaining him as his agent. When the vizier ʿAḍud al-Dīn (1) was killed, he restored
(*) His biography is recorded in the main annalistic works of his period, notably: al-Muntazam by Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Kamil by Ibn al-Athir, and Mirat by Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi. Al-Dhahabi also devoted an entry to him in Tarikh al-Islam, fol. 60 (Istanbul, Ahmed III, 2917/14), as well as in al-Mukhtasar al-muhtaj ilayh, 3/191, citing Ibn al-Dubaythi.
(1) This refers to Adud al-Din Muhammad b. Abd Allah, known as Ibn al-Maslama, whose assassination occurred in 573 AH, as mentioned above. Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi openly accuses Ibn al-Attar of colluding with the Batini Ismailis to murder the vizier Adud al-Din, quoting his father’s testimony: “I was sitting that day with Ibn al-Attar, the keeper of the treasury. He kept asking, ‘Husam al-Din, what time is it now?’—restless, standing and sitting. When the report of the killing arrived, he rose and exclaimed, ‘Allahu akbar! Vengeance for Tabr, vengeance for Izz al-Din!’—meaning the two sons of the vizier Ibn Hubayra who had been slain during the tenure of Ibn Raʾis al-Ruʾasaʾ. My father continues: I accompanied the treasurer to offer condolences to the family of Ibn Raʾis al-Ruʾasaʾ; he said to them, ‘May God slay whoever killed your father in the worst way and mutilate him most horribly.’ And so it happened: Ibn al-Attar was himself slain in the worst fashion and grievously mutilated.” (Mirat, 8/220).