my boldness on that day.
I say: al-Zaʿfarānī was a master of polished, persuasive speech.
He continued: I read to him all the volumes except two—Kitāb al-Manāsik (the Book of Pilgrimage Rites) and Kitāb al-Ṣalāh (the Book of Prayer) (1).
Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Jarrāḥ said: I heard al-Ḥasan al-Zaʿfarānī say, “When I recited Kitāb al-Risālah before al-Shāfiʿī, he asked me, ‘From which branch of the Arabs are you?’ I replied, ‘I am not an Arab at all; I am only from a village called al-Zaʿfarāniyyah.’ He said, ‘Then you are the chief of that village.’ (2)”
ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar, the jurist of Rayy, narrated to us: Abū ʿUmar al-Zāhid told us: I heard the jurist Abū al-Qāsim ibn Bashshār al-Anmāṭī say: I heard al-Muzanī say: I heard al-Shāfiʿī say:
“I once saw in Baghdad a Nabataean who kept attaching himself to me (3) until he seemed every bit an Arab, while I myself am a Nabataean.” He was asked, “Who is he?” He replied, “al-Zaʿfarānī.” (4)
Abū ʿAlī died in Baghdad at the very end of Shaʿbān in the year 260 AH, when he was in his nineties (5).
In that same year also died: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Bishr ibn al-Ḥakam, and ʿUbayd Allah ibn Saʿd