and of exemplary conduct and great stature. He travelled to Aleppo and studied jurisprudence there with the hadith-scholar jurist Abū al-Ḥasan al-Murādī, then served as judge in Damascus as the deputy of Abū Saʿd ibn Abī ʿAṣrūn. In 612 AH he was installed as chief qadi in his own right.

Ibn Nuqṭah (1) said: “Of all the Damascene shaykhs we met, he possessed the loftiest chains of transmission; he listened attentively and his auditions were reliable.”

Abū Shāmah (2) said: “His father brought him in from Ḥarastā and settled at Bāb Tūmā, where he led the prayers in the Zaynabī Mosque. Later his son Jamāl al-Dīn led there; Jamāl al-Dīn then moved and lived in his house at al-Ḥuwayra. He never missed the congregational prayer in the Maqṣūrah of al-Khaḍir, teaching there while large crowds gathered, impressed by his dignified appearance, calm composure and imposing presence. Shaykh ʿIzz al-Dīn ibn ʿAbd al-Salām told me he had never seen anyone more learned in law than him, and that his own scholarly pursuits began under him. He later kept company with Fakhr al-Dīn Ibn ʿAsākir; when I asked him about the two of them, he favoured Ibn al-Ḥarastānī. He had memorised al-Ghazālī’s al-Wasīṭ.

“After Muḥyī al-Dīn assumed the judiciary Ibn al-Ḥarastānī was not removed; he remained until al-ʿĀdil appointed him to the office, dismissed al-Ṭāhir, and took from him the ʿAzīziyya and the Taqawiyya madrasas. He granted the ʿAzīziyya to Ibn al-Ḥarastānī along with the judgeship, and al-ʿĀdil showed him favour. He delivered judgments in the Mujāhidiyya; acting on his behalf were his son al-ʿImād, then Ibn al-Shīrāzī, and Shams al-Dīn ibn Sanī al-Dawla. He remained in office for two years and seven months, then died, and his funeral was immense. He had tried to decline the judgeship but they pressed him into it. He was firm and just, following the way of the early generations in his dress and in his chastity.”