and profound devotion. A multitude of scholars studied under him, and through him the school of Imām al-Shāfiʿī spread throughout the lands.

It is said that whenever he missed the congregational prayer, he would repeat that prayer twenty-five times (1). He also washed the bodies of the deceased purely out of devotion and in hope of reward. He once remarked, “I undertook the washing of the dead so that my heart might soften, and it has now become my habit” (2). It was he who prepared Imām al-Shāfiʿī—may Allah have mercy on him—for burial.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said, “I heard hadith from al-Muzanī, and he is truthful” (3). Abū Saʿīd ibn Yūnus said, “He is reliable; he used to stay in the ribāṭ.”

He died in Ramadan, six days before the month ended, in the year 264 AH, at the age of eighty-nine.

I add: Among his distinguished pupils were the erudite Abū l-Qāsim ʿUthmān ibn Bashshār al-Anmāṭī (4)—the teacher of Ibn Surayj—and the master of Basra, Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Sājī. He never accepted a judgeship and was content, noble-spirited.

Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥanbalī informed us on more than one occasion, saying: Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Bunn al-Asadī informed us in the year three—