it for the rest of his life, and he was a master preserver of the chains of transmission, thoroughly versed in the narrators.
I say: I am not aware that any of this ḥāfiẓ’s narrations have come down to me; Athir al-Din (1) reported—from an unnamed man—from him.
52 – Ibn al-Athir, Abū al-Fatḥ Naṣr Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Shaybānī *
The court companion, the erudite scholar, the vizier, Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn, Abū al-Fatḥ Naṣr Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Shaybānī, al-Jazarī, the accomplished stylist, and author of Al-Mathal al-Sāʾir fī Adab al-Kātib wa al-Shāʿir (The Circulating Proverb on the Etiquette of the Writer and the Poet).
He was born on Jazīrat Ibn ʿUmar in 558 AH. He later moved from there with his father and brothers, grew up in Mosul, memorized the Quran, and turned his full attention to grammar, philology, poetry, and historical lore.
At the beginning of his book al-Washy he writes: “I have memorized of poetry what no…"
(1) That is, Athir al-Din Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati, the celebrated grammarian and Qur’an exegete.
(*) For his detailed biography see, for example: Yaqut, Muʿjam al-Buldan, 2:79; Ikmal al-Ikmal, fol. 3; Abu Shama, Dhayl al-Rawdatayn, p. 169; al-Mundhiri, Takmila li-Wafayat al-Naqala, 3, no. 2937; Ibn al-Sabuni, Takmila Ikmal al-Ikmal, pp. 4–6; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-Aʿyan, 5:389–397, no. 763; al-Dumyati, al-Mustafad, fols. 72–73; al-Hawadith al-Jamiʿa, p. 136; al-Duwal al-Islam, 2:108; al-Dhahabi, al-ʿIbar, 5:156; idem, Tarikh al-Islam, ms. Aya Sofya 3012, fol. 197; al-Asnawi, Tabaqat al-Shafiʿiyya, 1:133, no. 120; al-Fayyumi, Nathr al-Juman, 2, fols. 117–118; Ibn al-Mulqin, al-ʿIqd al-Mudhhab, fol. 166; Ibn Duqmaq, Nuzhat al-Anam, fol. 43; Ibn Hajar, al-Alqab, fol. 3; Ibn Taghribirdi, al-Nujum al-Zahira, 6:318; al-Suyuti, Bughyat al-Wuʿat, 2:351; Ibn al-ʿImad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, 5:187–188; Ibn al-Ghuzzi, Diwan, fol. 12; and the introductions to the following modern editions: al-Jamiʿ al-Kabir fi Sinaʿat al-Manzum min al-Kalam wa-l-Manthur, ed. Mustafa Jawad and Jamil Said, pp. 3–40; Kifayat al-Talib fi Naqd Kalam al-Shaʿir wa-l-Katib, ed. Nuri al-Qaysi and colleagues; and Rasaʾil Ibn al-Athir, ed. Nuri al-Qaysi and colleagues.