251 – al-Jubbāʾī, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī al-Ḥasan*
The Imām, exemplar: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī al-Ḥasan ibn Abī al-Faraj al-Shāmī, known as al-Jubbāʾī, was from the village of al-Jubba (1) in the province of Tripoli.
His father had been a Christian, but he himself embraced Islam while still a child (2). He memorised the Quran, then travelled to Baghdad in 540 AH at the age of twenty-one and became a companion of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir.
He received ḥadith from Ibn al-Talāyah, Ibn Nāṣir, and—while in Isfahan—from Abū al-Khayr al-Bāghbān, Masʿūd al-Thaqafī, and many others.
After mastering the foundations of legal theory (uṣūl), he settled permanently in Isfahan, where he enjoyed broad acceptance, high standing, truthfulness, and deep devotion. He was originally from Jubbah Bishrā.
He died in Jumādā al-Ākhira 605 AH, having transmitted a large body of material.
252 – Ibn al-Athīr, al-Mubārak ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Shaybānī**
the judge, the chief, the erudite scholar, the accomplished, the unique, the eloquent, Majd al-Dīn, Abū al-Saʿādāt
(*) Muʿjam al-Buldan, 2/32; al-Taqyid by Ibn Nuqtah, fol. 131; al-Takmila by al-Mundhiri, 2, bio-entry 1059; Tarikh al-Islam, 18/1, pp. 192-193; al-ʿIbar, 5, pp. 12-13; the supplement (al-Dhail) of Ibn Rajab, 2, pp. 44-47; Qalaʾid al-Tadhfi, pp. 129-130; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 5, pp. 15-16; al-Taj al-Mukallal by al-Qannawji, p. 219.
(1) The words inside square brackets are the author’s addition from Tarikh al-Islam.
(2) In Tarikh al-Islam the author quotes the subject saying: “We were Christians. When my father died while we were still young, God decreed that wars erupted and we left the village. There were Muslims there reciting the Quran, and I would weep whenever I heard them. I therefore embraced Islam at the age of eleven.”
(* *) Irshad al-Arib by Yaqut, 6, pp. 238-249; Ikmal al-Ikmal by Ibn Nuqtah, fols. 7-8 (Zahiriyya MS); al-Kamil by Ibn al-Athir, 12, p. 120; Inbaʾ al-Ruwat, 3, pp. 257-260; ʿUqud al-Juman by Ibn al-Shiʿar, 6, fols. 15-18; al-Takmila by al-Mundhiri, 2, bio-entry 1129; Dhail al-Rawdatayn by Abu Shamah, p. 69; al-Jamiʿ al-Mukhtasar, 9, pp. 299-301; Wafayat al-Aʿyan, 4, pp. 141-143; Talkhis Majmaʿ al-Adab, 5, bio-entry 439; al-Mukhtasar by Abu al-Fidaʾ, 3, pp. 118-119; Tarikh al-Islam, 18/1, pp. 246-248; al-ʿIbar, 5, p. 19; Duwal al-Islam, …