copper, and he would occasionally write his name in the audition registers as ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣaffār.

When he grew a little older, his aunt took him to Ibn Nāṣir, who enabled him to hear a great many hadiths. Still in his teens, he became enamoured of preaching and threw himself into it; while yet a boy he addressed the people from the pulpit. From then on his “market” only prospered: he was venerated—indeed, at times excessively so—crowds thronged to him, and the splendour of his sermons became proverbial. His attainments increased and his renown spread, until he passed away—may Allah pardon him. Would that he had never waded into taʾwīl (figurative interpretation) nor departed from the teaching of his own school.

His writings are numerous. (1) In Qurʾānic exegesis he composed al-Mughni, a sizeable work, which he later abridged into four volumes under the title Zad al-Masir. He also produced Tadhkira al-Arib on philology, one volume; al-Wujuh wa al-Nazaʾir, one volume; Funun al-Afnan, one volume; Jamiʿ al-Masanid in seven volumes—yet it is far from comprehensive; al-Hadaʾiq, two volumes; Naqi al-Naql, two volumes; Uyun al-Hikayat, two volumes; al-Tahqiq fi Masaʾil al-Khilaf, two volumes; Mushkil al-Sihah, four volumes; al-Mawduʿat, two volumes; al-Wahiyat, two volumes; al-Duʿafaʾ, one volume; Talqih al-Fuhum, one volume; al-Muntazam fi al-Tarikh, ten volumes; al-Madhhab fi al-Madhhab, one volume; al-Intisar fi al-Khilafiyyat, two volumes; Mashhur al-Masaʾil, two volumes; al-Yawaqit (sermons), one volume; Nasim al-Sahar, one volume; al-Muntakhab, one volume; al-Mudhish, one volume; Safwat al-Safwa, four volumes; Akhbar al-Akhyar, one volume; Akhbar al-Nisaʾ, one volume; Muthir al-ʿAzm al-Sakin, one volume; al-Maqʿad al-Muqim, one volume; Dham al-Hawa, one volume; and Talbis Iblis, one volume.