…Islam) by al-Dhahabi, where he writes: “Ali b. Ahmad b. al-Husayn b. Ahmad b. al-Husayn b. Mahmuwayh, the Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Yazdi, a Shafi‘i jurist, Qur’an-reciter, hadith scholar and ascetic, resident in Baghdad. He was, it seems, born in Yazd in 473 / 1080–81.” Al-Dhahabi adds that he died on 29 Jumada al-Akhira 551 / 27 August 1156 (MS Istanbul, Ahmed III 2917/14, fol. 220). Al-Samani, under the entry “al-Yazdi” in al-Ansab, after listing several people bearing this nisba, says: “…Among the later figures are the two brothers, the two imams ‘Ali and Muhammad, sons of Ahmad b. al-Husayn b. Mahmuwayh al-Yazdi. They settled in Baghdad and were noted for their piety, learning and scrupulousness. I received hadith from both of them” (Margoliouth edition, fol. 599). The shaykh is likewise cited by al-Dhahabi in al-‘Ibar 4/143; by al-Subki in Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyya 7/211; by Ibn al-Jazari in Ghayat al-Nihaya 1/517; by Ibn Taghribirdi in al-Nujum 5/324; and by Ibn al-‘Imad in al-Shadharat 4/159. (1) The name should be vocalised in this precise way—namely, with a damma on the final ya—exactly as we have found it pointed in the author’s own handwriting in several places of Tarikh al-Islam. In al-Subki’s Tabaqat our two esteemed colleagues, the meticulous editors al-Tannahi and al-Hilw, printed it with a fatha on the ya (and on the sin), which is incorrect. Admittedly, some people do write it that way, and the variant is recorded in the literature on problematic names, yet it is not the correct vocalisation; see Tabaqat al-Subki 7/188.