Al-Jamāl al-Qifṭī (1) said: “He possessed a thorough command of Sībawayh’s Kitāb and its underlying grammatical rationales, and he was a consummate authority on the Arabic language and its textual proofs. The review of documents in the chancery was referred to him; no letter was dispatched to any king until he had examined it. He was, however, somewhat absent-minded (2). His pupils attained teaching chairs while he was still alive, and he authored very little. Among his writings are ‘The Reply to Ten Questions’ and ‘Annotations on al-Ṣiḥāḥ,’ a finely crafted work that runs to six volumes (3). He was reliable and devout.”

Those who narrated from him include ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī, Ibn al-Mufaḍḍal, Abū ʿUmar al-Zāhid, Abū al-Maʿālī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī al-Mughīrī, Muṣṭafā ibn Maḥmūd, Nabāʾ ibn Abī al-Makārim, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Qasṭallānī, Ibn al-Jumayyizī, and many others.

He spoke with grammatical slips and grew irritated with anyone who affected excessive eloquence.

He died in Shawwal, 582 AH.

In that same year passed away: al-Hasan ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿUbaydah al-Karkhī, the Qur’an reciter; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Umawī, the copy-scribe; and ʿAbd al-Ghanī, the son of the ḥadīth master Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Hamadhānī.

70 – Ibn al-Mannī, Abū al-Fatḥ Naṣr ibn Fityān ibn Maṭar al-Nahrawānī*
The shaykh, imām, erudite scholar, mufti, shaykh of the Hanbalīs, well-wisher of Islam, Abū—