the righteous, the exemplary, the last remnant of the earliest generations, Abū al-ʿIzz ibn Abī Ḥarb al-Baghdādī al-Ḥarbī.
Born: 500 AH (1).
He devoted himself to the transmitted reports: he read the books, copied manuscripts, gathered material, and authored works, all while remaining pious, devout, truthful, firmly attached to the Sunnah, widely accepted in people’s hearts, and commanding great respect.
He studied under Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥuṣayn, Abū al-ʿIzz ibn Kādhish, Hibat Allah ibn al-Ṭabr, Abū Ghālib ibn al-Bannāʾ, the Judge of the Bīmāristān, and many others.
He transmitted prolifically and benefited the students.
Those who narrated from him include Shaykh al-Muwaffaq, the ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī, Ḥamd ibn Ṣudayq, al-Bahāʾ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad ibn al-Dubaythī, and a number of others.
He also wrote a booklet on the merits of Yazīd in which he advanced astonishing and eccentric claims; had he not composed it, it would have been better (2). He produced it as a rebuttal to Ibn al-Jawzī, and enmity arose between the two of them (3).
ʿAbd al-Mughīth committed errors that reveal the limited range of his learning: he once said, “Muslim ibn Yasār is a Companion,” and he declared authentic the ḥadith about reclining, even though it is rejected. When this was pointed out to him, he said: