of correspondence, and his prestige only increased. He possessed a distinguished mastery of epistolary composition and even wrote a treatise on the subject. Later he was struck with paralysis in his limbs, became unable to write, and remained confined to his home. He built a ribāṭ in a village and endowed his properties for its upkeep, and a small collection of his verse has also survived.

Imam Abū Shāmah (1) said: “He studied ḥadith, many sciences, and literature. He was a chief whose advice was sought. He authored Jāmiʿ al-Uṣūl, al-Nihāyah, and a commentary on the Musnad of al-Shāfiʿī. Afflicted with gout, he had to be carried in a litter. He studied grammar with Abū Muḥammad Saʿīd ibn al-Dahhān and with Abū al-Ḥaram Makkī the Blind …,” until he said:

“When he performed the pilgrimage he stopped in Baghdad and heard ḥadith from Ibn Kulayb (2). He later taught, and people benefited from him. He was devout, intelligent, dignified, benevolent, and charitable. His brother ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAlī is the author of al-Tārīkh, and their other brother, the chancellor Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn, is the author of al-Mathal al-Sāʾir.”

Ibn Khallikān (3) said: “Among Majd al-Dīn’s works are al-Inṣāf fī al-Jamʿ bayna al-Kashf wa-al-Kashshāf—a reconciliation of the two Qur’anic commentaries of al-Thaʿlabī and al-Zamakhsharī; al-Muṣṭafā al-Mukhtār fī al-Adʿiyah wa-al-Adhkār; a concise treatise on the craft of chancellery writing; al-Badīʿ fī Sharḥ Muqaddimat Ibn al-Dahhān; and a Dīwān of letters.”

I say: Those who transmitted from him include his own son; al-Shihāb al-Qūṣī; Imam Tāj al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Hāmiḍ, Shaykh of Bājirbaq; and a number of others.

The last person to receive his licence to narrate from him was Shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn ibn al-Bukhārī (4).