Ibn al-Najjār (1) said, “I narrated from him in great abundance, kept close company with him, and heard from him selections of the works on Qur’anic readings and literature. He was reliable, authoritative, and noble—celebrated for the beauty of his delivery and the sweetness of his tone. People sought him out for the tarāwīḥ prayers; I have never encountered a reciter with a lovelier voice or a finer command of tajwīd, despite his advanced age and the loss of his two front teeth. He possessed complete mastery of the modes of recitation and their rationales, had memorised their chains of transmission and pathways, and also had a sound knowledge of hadith. He was affable, gentle, and gracious. In his youth he was counted among the most handsome and refined men of his time, all while being upright and chaste; and even as an elder he remained one of the most comely shaykhs. Poets spoke of him at length.

Yahyā ibn Ṭāhir recited to me, and Abū ’l-Fath Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad the scribe recited to us—his own verse about Ḥamzah ibn al-Qubayṭī:
A graceful young gazelle has captured my heart; I treasure him, yet still my wish remains unmet.
A mis-vowelled form of his name lights up his cheeks, and from the nectar of his mouth it flows into my heart.

I read before Ḥamzah ibn ʿAlī; Ibn Tawbah informed us; al-Khaṭīb narrated to us … and he mentioned a hadith.

He died on the eighteenth of Dhū ’l-Ḥijjah in the year 602 AH.
That same year al-Ḍiyāʾ ibn al-Khuraif and the Sultan of Ghaznah, al-Shihāb al-Ghawrī, also passed away.

234 – Ibn al-Khaṣīb, Abū ’l-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Qurashī *

The shaykh, scholar, and jurist Abū ’l-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Abī al-Riḍā ibn al-Khaṣīb ibn Zayd al-Qurashī, a Damascene Shāfiʿī.