Shams al-Dīn, Abū al-Muẓaffar Yūsuf ibn Quzghulī ibn ʿAbd Allāh the Turk, al-ʿAwnī, al-Hubayrī, al-Baghdādī, a Ḥanafī, and the maternal grandson of Imām Abū al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī.

He was born in the mid-580s AH. He received transmission from his grandfather, from ʿAbd al-Munʿim ibn Kulayb, and from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī al-Majd al-Ḥarbī. In Mosul he studied with Aḥmad and ʿAbd al-Muḥsin, the two sons of al-Khaṭīb al-Ṭūsī, and in Damascus with Abū Ḥafṣ Ibn Ṭabarzadh, Abū al-Yumn al-Kindī, and others.

Those who narrated from him include al-Dimyāṭī, ʿAbd al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Shurūṭī, al-Zayn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUbayd, al-Najm al-Shaqrawī, al-ʿIzz Abū Bakr ibn al-Shāyib, Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zarrād, al-ʿImād ibn al-Bālisī, and many others.

The mantle of public exhortation, eloquent admonition, and historical learning finally settled upon him. His delivery was sweet, his manners gentle, his appearance handsome, and he was held in great esteem. He enjoyed exceptional popularity, and his reputation thrived in Damascus.

The sons of al-Malik al-ʿĀdil frequented him and loved him. He wrote Mirʾāt al-Zamān (The Mirror of Time) and other works, and I have seen a treatise of his that points to a tendency toward Shiʿism. The common folk were excessive in the reverence they showed in his gatherings.

He settled in Damascus while still young, issuing legal opinions and teaching. He died in his house at the foot of Mount Qāsiyūn; the sultan and the judges accompanied his funeral. He was intelligent, witty, humble, possessed a prodigious memory, had a pleasant voice, and was without equal. He left a large Qurʾānic commentary in twenty-nine volumes.

He passed away in Dhu al-Hijjah (1), 654 AH.