and would belittle his standing, so Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir’s sons came to despise him, aided by their associate Ibn al-Qaṣṣāb. Al-Rukn himself held unsound convictions and was enamoured of philosophy; at Ibn al-Jawzī’s instigation his books were burned, their madrasa was confiscated, and it was handed over to Ibn al-Jawzī—whereupon al-Rukn was poisoned. Ibn al-Qaṣṣāb the vizier, moreover, inclined toward Rāfiḍī doctrine. Al-Rukn went to him and said, “Why are you leaving that nāṣibī Ibn al-Jawzī unchecked—he, too, is one of Abū Bakr’s descendants!” The vizier whipped al-Rukn up against the shaykh; he came, insulted him, and took him away in a boat. The shaykh wore only a thin robe without trousers and a light cap upon his head. The steward of Wāsiṭ, also a Shiʿī, was present, and al-Rukn said to him, “Hand this culprit over to me so I may throw him into a vaulted pit.”

The man rebuked him: “You renegade! Shall I do that merely on your word? Produce the Commander of the Faithful’s written order. By Allah, were he of my own creed I would sacrifice my very life in his service.”

Al-Rukn was therefore sent back to Baghdad.

The shaykh’s release came about because his son Yūsuf had now grown up, devoted himself to study, and, while still a boy, took to preaching during that period. He persisted until the caliph’s mother interceded and set the shaykh free. Yūsuf came to him, and he departed; he did not leave Wāsiṭ until he and his son—under his own instruction—had completed the Qur’an in the Ten Readings with Ibn al-Bāqillānī, though the shaykh was nearly eighty years old. Behold such lofty aspiration!

This was related by the ḥāfiẓ Ibn Nuqta from the judge Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥasan (1).

Al-Muwaffaq ʿAbd al-Laṭīf writes in one of his works: Ibn al-Jawzī was handsome in appearance, gracious in manners, soft-voiced and melodious, his movements and tones perfectly measured, and his conversation delightful. One hundred thousand people—or more—would attend his gatherings. He never wasted a moment of his time, writing four quires each day. He had a share in every discipline, yet in Qur’anic exegesis he ranked among the foremost, in hadith among the huffāẓ, in history among the most expansive authorities, and he possessed jurisprudential knowledge sufficient for legal verdicts. As for the rhymed prose of exhortation, he enjoyed a powerful command of it, and he