He was a venerable and noble shaykh, devout in worship, ever in prostration, God-fearing, of dignified bearing and quick wit in conversation, one of the city’s foremost notables. He studied jurisprudence with Jamāl al-Aʾimma ʿAlī ibn al-Māsih; he learned to recite the Qur’an according to the reading of Ibn ʿĀmir under Abū al-Qāsim al-ʿUmari; and he acquired refinement under ʿAlī ibn ʿUthmān al-Sulamī. He was appointed supervisor of the Treasury and of the religious endowments, and he devoted himself to his duties. Owing to his abundant prayers he was nicknamed al-Sajjād (“the man who prostrates a great deal”). Ibn al-Ḥājib praised him with extravagant words that I have omitted, and Ibn al-Majd himself struck out some of them.

Sayf Ibn al-Majd said: “We received transmission from him (1), but he used to turn about a great deal during the prayer. It is said that he would conduct trade while praying, signalling with his hand to anyone who wished to buy from him.”

Al-Barzālī said: “He is trustworthy, noble, generous, and upright.”

Zayn al-Umanaʾ—may Allah have mercy upon him—died in the pre-dawn hours of Friday, the sixteenth (2) of Safar in the year 627 AH. A great multitude accompanied his funeral, and he was buried beside his brother, the mufti Fakhr al-Din ʿAbd al-Rahman; praise for him was widespread.

It is reported that toward the end of his life he was afflicted with paralysis, so he used to be carried in a litter to the congregational mosque and to the Nūrī ḥadith college, where he would still conduct sessions of transmission. He lived eighty-three years.

Al-Qūṣī said: “I heard from him the Sunan of al-Dāraquṭnī.”

I say: He had related it from al-Ḍiyāʾ ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ʿAsākir, his uncle.

In that same year there also died: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAtīq ibn Ṣīlā; ʿAbd al-Salām ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī ibn Sukeinah; Abū Zayd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yakhlaqīn ibn Aḥmad al-Fāzāzī al-Qurṭubī; and Abū al-Maʿālī Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Shāfiʿ al-Jīlī.