Ibn al-Shaʿʿār (1) said: “He was the chief chancery scribe for the ruler of Mosul, Nūr al-Din Arslan-Shāh ibn Masʿūd ibn Mawdūd. He was an adept accountant, an accomplished secretary, and remarkably intelligent …,” until he said:
“Among his writings are: Kitāb al-Furūq fī al-Abniyah (The Differentiations in Morphological Patterns); Kitāb al-Adwāʾ wa-al-Dhawāt (The Luminaries and the Essences); Kitāb al-Mukhtār fī Manāqib al-Akhyār (The Selected Virtues of the Righteous); and Sharḥ Gharīb al-Ṭiwāl (A Commentary on the Rare Expressions of al-Ṭiwāl).” He added, “He was one of the most miserly of men.”
I say: Whoever endows his real estate for Allah is not a miser. He was neither tight-fisted nor lavish, but rather a man of prudence and moderation.
He lived sixty-three years and died in 606 AH in Mosul. (2)
His brother al-ʿIzz related: “A Maghribi came and treated my brother with an ointment he had prepared; its benefit soon appeared and my brother was able to stretch out his legs. He then said to me, ‘Give him whatever satisfies him and let him depart.’
“I asked, ‘Why, now that the treatment has succeeded?’
“He replied, ‘What you say is true, but I am comfortable now that I have left the service of these rulers. My soul has found peace in seclusion and ease. Only yesterday I used to humble myself by going to them, whereas now they come to me only for some important consultation—and little of life remains.’” (3)
- Ibn Rūḥ, Abū al-Fakhr Asʿad ibn Saʿīd al-Iṣbahānī
The righteous, eminent, long-lived shaykh, the senior hadith transmitter of Isfahān, Abū al-Fakhr Asʿad ibn Saʿīd