He heard from Abū al-Khayr al-Bāghabān, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Rustumī, Masʿūd ibn al-Ḥasan al-Thaqafī, Maḥmūd Fawraja, Abū al-Muṭahhar al-Ṣaydilānī, and others of their rank.
He wrote prolifically, compiled and arranged his material, and transmitted it.
Among those who narrated from him were Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn al-Maqdisī, Zakī al-Dīn al-Barzalī, and a number of itinerant scholars.
He granted written authorisation to Ibn Shaybān, al-Fakhr ibn al-Bukhārī, and al-Burhān ibn al-Darajī.
He passed away in Muḥarram of the year 610 AH, having reached old age.
80 – Najm al-Dīn al-Kubrā Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad al-Khwārazmī*
The shaykh, Imām, erudite scholar, exemplar, hadith master, martyr, and shaykh of Khurāsān—known as Najm al-Kubarā, and also as Najm al-Dīn al-Kubrā (1)—the shaykh Abū al-Jannāb Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad al-Khwārazmī, al-Khīwuqī (2), the Sufi.
Khīwuq (3) is a village of Khwarazm.
He travelled widely in pursuit of hadith and heard from: Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī, Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Hamadhānī the perfumer, Muḥammad ibn Bunaymān, ʿAbd al-Munʿim ibn al-Farāwī,
(*) Tarikh al-Islam, fols. 180–181 (Aya Sofya MS 3011); al-Ibar, 5:73–74; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 5:79–80; and other parallel sources.
(1) Al-Dhahabi writes in Tarikh al-Islam: “I heard Abu al-Ala al-Faradi say: The original form was Najm al-Kubara; later it was lightened and altered so that some said Najm al-Din al-Kubra.” This is Abu al-Ala’s account. Ibn al-Imad, however, reports in Shadharat al-Dhahab another explanation for the sobriquet: “Because, while still a boy, he surpassed his contemporaries in understanding difficult and abstruse matters, they nicknamed him al-Tamma al-Kubra (the supreme calamity); through frequent use the word al-tamma was dropped and only al-kubra remained.” In our view, Abu al-Ala al-Faradi is the better authority for the local usage.
(2) The editor of volume 5 of al-Ibar vocalised the word as al-khuyuqi, which is incorrect.
(3) The present author prefers the reading with a kasra on the initial consonant; Yaqut, however, notes: “It is read with a fatha on the first letter, though a kasra is also possible,” implying that the kasra, for him, is the less common pronunciation.