one could ever reckon; after that I confined myself to the dīwāns of Abū Tammām, al-Buḥturī, and al-Mutanabbī and memorized them.

Ibn Khallikān relates: He presented himself to Sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, who advanced him in rank, while al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil rewarded him. He remained in their company for several months, then the Sultan sent him to his son al-Malik al-Afdal, who made him vizier. When Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn died, al-Afdal took Damascus and entrusted its affairs to Ḍiyāʾ, but his dealings became offensive and they plotted his death, so he was spirited away in a box and travelled with al-Afdal to Egypt. The realm then slipped from al-Afdal’s grasp, and Ḍiyāʾ went into hiding. When al-Afdal settled in Samosata, Ḍiyāʾ rejoined him, but left his service in 607 AH. He next attached himself to the ruler of Aleppo, but found no favor there, was aggrieved, went on to Mosul, and wrote to its governor.

He had an outstanding hand in chancery prose, matching and challenging al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil; between them ran exchanges of letters and literary skirmishes.

Ibn al-Najjār says: He came to Baghdad as an envoy more than once, read from his own work there, fell ill, and died in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir 637 AH.

It is also said that there was bitter estrangement and avoidance between him and his brother ʿIzz al-Dīn.

53 – Ibn al-Muʿizz, Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd al-Ḥarrānī *
The shaykh, hadith transmitter, long-lived and righteous; Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad, son of the qadi Abū al-Fatḥ Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd ibn al-Muʿizz ibn Isḥāq al-Ḥarrānī, later al-Baghdādī, a Sufi from the Ribāṭ of Shahdah.