Shaykh Abū Isḥāq said: The judgeship was offered to Ibn Khayrān, but he would not accept it. One of al-Muqtadir’s viziers—­I believe it was Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā (1)—stationed an agent at his house so that he might assume the office, yet he still refused.

When the vizier was taken to task over this he replied, “Our only intention in assigning someone to his door was that people might say: ‘In our time there was a man whose house was placed under guard so that he would accept the judgeship, yet he did not do so.’” (2)

Ibn Zulāq (3) reports that Abū Bakr ibn al-Ḥaddād al-Shāfiʿī saw in Baghdad, in the year 310 AH, the door of Abū ʿAlī ibn Khayrān nailed shut because of his refusal to serve as judge, and that he had gone into hiding.
He said: “People would bring their small children and tell them, ‘Look well, so that you can one day relate this story.’” (4)

I add: Ibn al-Ḥaddād (5) had travelled to Baghdad to intercede on behalf of Abū ʿUbayd ibn Ḥarbawayh so that he might be excused from the judgeship of Egypt.

I have not been able to learn under whom he studied, nor who transmitted from him.

He passed away with thirteen days remaining in Dhu al-Ḥijjah, in the year 320 AH. (6)