and al-Zayn Khalid, al-Taqī ibn Abī al-Yusr, al-Jamāl Ibn al-Ṣayrafī, Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Khayr, the judge Shams al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿImād, Shaykh Shams al-Dīn ibn Abī ʿUmar, Abū al-Ghanāʾim ibn ʿAllān, Muʾammil al-Bālisī, al-Ṣāḥib Kamāl al-Dīn al-ʿAdīmī, Muḥyī al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn ʿAsrūn, al-Fakhr ʿAlī, al-Shams Ibn al-Kamāl, Muḥammad ibn Muʾmin, Yūsuf ibn al-Mujāwir, Sitt al-ʿArab bint Yaḥyā—his freedwoman—and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim Ibn al-Qawwās.
He also transmitted, by written ijāzah, to the two who bore the kunya Abū Ḥafṣ: Ibn al-Qawwās and Ibn al-ʿAqīmī (1).
Ibn al-Najjār (2) said: “While he was still a child his father entrusted him to Sibṭ al-Khayyāṭ, who taught him the Qur’an and perfected his recitation; then, when he was ten, he had him memorize the variant readings.
“He left Baghdad in 543 AH, staying for some years in Hamadhān, studying the Ḥanafī school under Saʿd al-Rāzī at the Sultan Ṭughril’s madrasa. In 544 AH his father set out for the pilgrimage but died on the way, so Abū al-Yumn returned to Baghdad, then travelled on to Syria. Farrukhshāh appointed him as minister, and after Farrukhshāh he became closely attached to Farrukhshāh’s brother Taqī al-Dīn ʿUmar, who favoured him greatly; his wealth increased accordingly.
“Al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam used to study adab with him, would visit him at his house and honor him. I myself read a great deal to him, and he supplied me with living expenses. I never met a shaykh more perfect in intellect, nobility, reliability, truthfulness, thoroughness and composure, while remaining gentle of character. He was handsome and dignified—more like a vizier than a scholar—because of his gravitas and lofty standing. He was the most knowledgeable grammarian of his age; I believe he had the whole of Sibawayh’s Kitāb committed to memory. I never entered upon him without finding it in his hand as he reviewed it. It was bound in a single, slender volume which he read without the slightest effort, even though he had reached his nineties, and his hearing, sight and physical strength were all still intact.”