Ibn Masdīy said: “He left behind many compositions, supplying each with chains of transmission. Yet in that bold undertaking he did not avoid the usual pitfalls: he entertained a favourable opinion of certain people, followed their lead, and became entangled with them.”

I add: The preface of his book Barq al-Naqā reads, “All praise is due to Allah who has lodged in faces and stately forms a beauty and houri-like glances that draw to them the souls of free men.”

121 – Abū al-Majd Khazʿal ibn ʿAskar ibn Khalīl al-Shanāʾī (1), the incomparable scholar, Taqī al-Dīn, an Egyptian Shāfiʿī Qurʾān-reciter, grammarian, and linguist who settled in Damascus.

He heard hadith from al-Salafī, and in Baghdad read most of al-Kamāl al-Anbārī’s works to him. He taught Qurʾān recitation in Jerusalem, then came to Damascus, led the prayers at the shrine of ʿAlī, solemnised marriages, and his teaching circle flourished in the ʿAzīziyya.

Abū Shāma and many senior scholars studied under him. A leading authority in Arabic, he held hadith in great esteem and urged people to memorise it. When officiating divorces he never accepted a fee, and he showed generosity whenever he was able.

He died in 623 AH at the age of seventy-six.