One of his obsessive misgivings was that a pigeon once flew down into his cooking pot; his breath tightened and he died shortly thereafter!
89 – Ibn Shahm, Abū al-Manṣūr Ẓāfir ibn Ṭāhir ibn Ẓāfir al-Iskandarānī
Abū al-Manṣūr Ẓāfir ibn Ṭāhir ibn Ẓāfir ibn Ismāʿīl al-Iskandarānī, a Mālikī jurist, was better known as Ibn Shahm (1) the embroiderer. He lived eighty-eight (2) years. He heard hadith from al-Silafī and Ibn ʿAwf, and was himself heard by al-Dimyāṭī, al-Gharrāfī, and others. He died in Rabīʿ al-Awwal (3), in 642 AH.
90 – Ibn al-Makhīlī, Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī ibn Manṣūr al-Ghassānī
The venerable shaykh, foremost authority, imam, and jurist—Jamāl al-Dīn, Abū al-Faḍl Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī ibn Manṣūr ibn Najā ibn Manṣūr al-Ghassānī (4), of Alexandria, the son of
(1) Takmilat Wafayat an-Naqala, by al-Hafiz al-Mundhiri, vol. 3, entry 3160 — he notes that the shaykh had granted him an ijaza in a letter sent from Alexandria; Sila al-Takmila, by al-Husayni, fol. 14; al-Dhahabi, al-Ibar, 5/172; idem, Tarikh al-Islam (Aya Sofya MS 3013), vol. 20, fol. 17; al-Nujum al-Zahira, 6/352; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 5/313–314.
(1) Al-Nujum and Shadharat read Sahm (with an undotted sin); this is a copyist’s error, for al-Mundhiri and al-Husayni record it with a dotted shin, Shahm.
(2) Al-Mundhiri, al-Husayni and al-Dhahabi (Tarikh al-Islam) give his birth year as 554 AH.
(3) The same authorities state that he died in the middle of the month of Rabi al-Awwal.
(* *) Sila al-Takmila, by al-Husayni, fol. 16; al-Dhahabi, al-Ibar, 5/173; idem, Tarikh al-Islam (Aya Sofya MS 3013), vol. 20, fol. 20; Tabsir al-Muntabih bi-Tahrir al-Mushtabih, no. 1349; al-Nujum al-Zahira, 6/352; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 5/216.
(4) Al-Nujum al-Zahira misreads the name as al-Asali.