133 – Al-Balʿamī, Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Rajāʾ

The consummate vizier, distinguished imam, and jurist—Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Rajāʾ al-Tamīmī al-Balʿamī al-Bukhārī—was counted among the notable figures of his age.

He studied under Abū al-Muwajjah (1) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr and the jurist Muḥammad ibn Naṣr, transmitting abundantly from the latter and keeping his company for a considerable time, eventually adhering to his school of law.

Gifted in the art of official correspondence, he outshone his contemporaries and attained the highest ranks of precedence and authority. A number of scholars narrated from him.

He served as vizier to the ruler of Transoxiana, Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad (2).

The vizier’s grandfather (3) had seized the town of Balʿam—one of the Byzantine territories—when the commander Maslama ibn ʿAbd al-Malik entered that region; he settled there, and his descendants became numerous in the area (4).

Among the vizier’s works are Talqīḥ al-Balāghah (The Grafting of Eloquence), al-Maqālāt (Dissertations), and other writings.

He died in Ṣafar, 329 AH.

134 – Al-Khaṣībī, Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Aḥmad

The eminent vizier, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh—the son of the vizier Aḥmad ibn al-Khaṣīb al-Jarjarāʾī—was an accomplished chancery secretary,