al-Baghdādī, the scholar of uṣūl, the man of letters and master of epistolary style—he was also called Aḥmad. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī al-Majd granted him an ijāza (authorization). Al-Dimyāṭī studied poetry under him. He died in the middle of the year 656 AH (1). His brother ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd (2) composed an elegy for him, and then passed away shortly afterward in that same year. The two brothers were among the foremost scholars, authorities in dialectical theology, poetry, prose, and rhetoric. Yet al-Muwaffaq held the sounder creed, for ʿIzz was a Muʿtazilite—may Allah protect us!

186 – al-Shārī, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad… the Imām, ḥāfiẓ, Qur’an-reciter, ḥadīth scholar, distinguished and eminent, Shaykh of the Maghrib: Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Ghāfiqī, known first as al-Shārī and later as al-Sabtī. Shāra is a small town in the province of Murcia and was his ancestral home, while Ceuta was his birthplace.