262 – Ibn Sukaynah, ʿAbd al-Wahhab ibn ʿAli ibn ʿAli al-Baghdadi *
The shaykh, the imam, the scholar, the jurist, the hadith master, the trustworthy authority, the long-lived exemplar, Shaykh al-Islam, the pride of Iraq, Diyaʾ al-Din, Abu Ahmad ʿAbd al-Wahhab, son of the upright shaykh Abu Mansur ʿAli ibn ʿAli ibn ʿUbayd Allah ibn Sukaynah al-Baghdadi, the Sufi and Shafiʿi.
Sukaynah is the name of his father’s mother.
He was born in Shaʿban (1) of the year 519 AH.
He heard a vast amount from his father—through whom he transmitted the Jaʿdiyyat collection—and from Hibat Allah ibn al-Husayn, from whom he narrated the Ghaylaniyyat; also from Abu Ghalib Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Mawardi, Zahir al-Shahhami, the Judge of the Maristan, Muhammad ibn Hamuwayh al-Juwayni the ascetic, and many others, as reported by Ibn Nasir (2).
He then kept close company with Abu Saʿd al-Baghdadi, the hadith scholar (3), from whom he related abundantly, and in his presence he also heard from Abu Mansur al-Qazzaz, Ismaʿil ibn—
(*) al-Taqyid by Ibn Nuqtah, fols. 159–160; al-Kamil by Ibn al-Athir, 12/122; the History of Ibn al-Dubaythi, fols. 156–157 (Paris 5922); al-Tarikh al-Mujaddad by Ibn al-Najjar, fols. 64–66 (Zahiriyya MS); al-Takmila by al-Mundhiri, 2: entry 1146; Dhayl al-Rawdatayn, p. 70; the Mashyakha of al-Najib al-Harrani, fols. 101–105 (he is sheikh 55 therein); Akhbar al-Zuhhad by Ibn al-Saʿi, fols. 92–94; al-Mukhtasar al-Muhtaj Ilayh, fol. 80; Maʿrifat al-Qurra, fols. 181–182; al-ʿIbar, 5/23; Duwal al-Islam, 2/85; Tarikh al-Islam, 18/1/272-276; Tabaqat al-Isnawi, fol. 121; al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 13/61; al-ʿIqd al-Mudhhab by Ibn al-Mulqen, fol. 165; Ghayat al-Nihaya, 1/480; Tabaqat al-Shafiʿiyya by Ibn Qadi Shahbah, fol. 57; ʿAqd al-Juman by al-ʿAyni, 17: fols. 309-331; and other sources.
(1) He died on the night of the tenth of that month, as reported by Ibn al-Dubaythi, al-Mundhiri, and others.
(2) Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Salami.
(3) The person intended is Abu Saʿd ʿAbd al-Karim ibn Muhammad al-Samani al-Marwazi al-Tamimi, author of al-Ansab. Labeling him “al-Baghdadi” is inaccurate, for he was not known by that nisba. In Tarikh al-Islam the author writes: “He then kept company with Abu Saʿd ibn al-Samani when the latter arrived and, together with him, heard many narrations from Abu Mansur ibn Zurayq al-Qazzaz,” which is the more precise description.