66 – al-Ablah, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Bakhtiyār al-Jawharī
The “Poet of Iraq,” Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Bakhtiyār al-Jawharī, was nicknamed al-Ablah (“the simple-minded”) because of a certain heedlessness in his character (1). He composed panegyrics for caliphs and viziers. Among those who narrated from him were ʿAlī ibn Naṣr the littérateur and the historian Abū al-Ḥasan al-Qaṭīʿī. A charming young man, devoted to night worship, and gifted with a polished poetic style—his collected poems (Dīwān) are well known. He died in Jumādā al-Ākhirah, in the year 579 AH, before he reached sixty.
67 – al-Qazzāz, Naṣr Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad
The pious, long-lived shaykh and chief hadith transmitter of Baghdad: Abū al-Saʿādāt Naṣr Allāh, son of the musnid Shaykh Abū Manṣūr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, son of the musnid Abū Ghālib Muḥammad.
(*) Among the biographical sources that mention him are: Ibn al-Dubaythi, Ta rikh, vol. 1, entry 91 (ed. Bashar); Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, 11/204; Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi, Mir at, 8/379; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat, 4/463; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, fol. 79 (Topkapi, Ahmed III 2917/14), and al-Ibar, 4/238; al-Safadi, al-Wafi, 2/244; Ibn al-Imad, al-Shadharat, 4/266.
(1) Another opinion is that he was so nicknamed because of his remarkable sharp-wittedness; the term is one of the so-called contronyms, just as a black man could be called Kafur. See Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat, 4/465.
(* *) Further biographies are found in: Ibn al-Dubaythi, Dalalat al-Mukhtasar al-Muhtaj ilayh, 3/208; al-Mundhiri, al-Takmila, vol. 1, entry 16; Sain al-Din al-Naal, Mashyakha, p. 80; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, fol. 13 (Paris 1582); al-Mushtabih, p. 314; al-Ibar, 4/250; Duwal al-Islam, 2/70; al-Ilam, fol. 210; Ibn Taghribirdi, al-Nujum, 6/106; Ibn al-Imad, al-Shadharat, 4/276. Ibn al-Futi also records him under those styled Qawam al-Din in his summary, vol. 4, entry 3173, citing Ibn al-Dubaythi.