He was outstanding in comparative jurisprudence and dialectical reasoning, thoroughly grounded in legal principles—intelligent, alert, quick-witted, eloquent of phrase, well-connected and highly esteemed, with a large number of students. He travelled twice to Ibn Yaḥyā (1), al-Ghazālī’s associate. During one of those journeys he fell, broke his arm until it hung like his thigh, and was eventually compelled to have it amputated at the elbow; he then drew up an official statement confirming that it had not been severed for any criminal suspicion.

On one occasion he debated al-Mujīr, who was often left speechless in discussion. Al-Mujīr remarked, “A man sets out on the road to commit highway robbery, then claims he was busy studying!” Ibn Faḍlān produced the document and began censuring al-Mujīr for his indulgence in philosophy.

Ibn Faḍlān was a graceful disputant, his tones precisely measured; he would gesture with his hand in a refined, rhythmic cadence and pause deliberately at the ends of words for fear of a grammatical slip.

So narrated al-Muwaffaq ʿAbd al-Laṭīf, who added, “He used to joke with me frequently, then in his later years he was struck by falij (hemiplegia)—may Allah have mercy on him.”

I (the author) say: He studied jurisprudence in Baghdad under Abū Manṣūr al-Razzāz, and through him many leading scholars graduated. In Khurāsān he heard ḥadith from Abū al-Asʿad al-Qushayrī and ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ṣaffār.

He taught at the Dār al-Dhahab madrasa, and he had recited the various Qurʾānic readings to Muḥammad ibn al-ʿĀlima. His lessons were marked by humility and dignity.

He died in Shaʿbān, 595 AH.

134 – Ibn Kulayb, ʿAbd al-Munʿim ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Ḥarrānī *
The venerable, trustworthy shaykh, the chief transmitter of our era, Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Munʿim ibn