Despite his advanced years and frailty, he never refused anyone who came to him, and he would offer an excuse only when driven by an obvious necessity. He owned priceless rarities and the foremost reference works—books unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries. He built a madrasa in Ceuta and endowed it with those books, intending to complete the endowment in keeping with the practice current in the madrasas of the eastern lands. Political turmoil, however, intervened; the disorders forced him out of Ceuta and into exile.

He entered al-Andalus in 641 AH, settled in Almería, and remained there until 648 AH. Many students studied under him in that city, and it was there that he taught the Qur’an. In Ṣafar of the same year he arrived in Málaga. He also transmitted hadith in Granada, and in Málaga eminent scholars—among them Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Ṭanjālī, the master Ḥumayd al-Qurṭubī, and Abū (1) al-Zahr ibn Rabīʿ—received knowledge from him.

Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Abbār (2) likewise magnified and extolled him, saying, “He was active in several disciplines, combined with evident nobility, dignity, and chivalry. He amassed a vast collection of books, obtained ancient primary sources, narrated abundantly, and was the leading hadith scholar of that region.”

Abū al-Qāsim ibn ʿImrān al-Ḥaḍramī told me the reason for al-Shārī’s expulsion from Ceuta. Ibn Khalāṣ and the city’s leading notables had resolved to hand Ceuta over to the ruler of Ifrīqiya, Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid. Al-Shārī said to them, “My people! Any good that might come from Ifrīqiya is far from us, and its evil is likewise far; the prudent course is to come to terms with the king of Marrakesh.” Ibn Khalāṣ—who held sway among them—could not tolerate this advice. He prepared a vessel, put Abū al-Hasan al-Shārī aboard, and exiled him to Málaga, while his family and wealth remained in Ceuta, where he owned a fine, spacious madrasa.

Ibn al-Zubayr said: Abū al-Hasan—may Allah have mercy on him—died in Málaga on the twenty-ninth of Ramaḍān, 649 AH.