and have you guarantee my estates as well.” I agreed to underwrite them, and in that first year alone I realised an immense profit. Within three years I had earned thirty-thousand dinars. I brought the whole sum to Daʿlaj, but he exclaimed, “Glory be to Allah! By Allah, I never intended to take it—use it to provide for the children.” I said, “Shaykh, what is the origin of this wealth that you would give me ten-thousand dinars?”

He answered, “I was raised memorising the Qur’an and studying hadith, yet I also engaged in trade. One day a merchant who travelled by sea came to me and asked, ‘Are you Daʿlaj?’ ‘Yes,’ I replied. He said, ‘I would like to place my capital with you on a profit-sharing basis.’ He then handed me documents for consignments worth one million dirhams.

“He told me, ‘Use it freely; whenever you know of a market where the goods will sell, take them there.’ Year after year he kept coming back, each time entrusting me with a similar amount, and the merchandise continued to grow.

“Then he said, ‘I am often at sea; should I perish, this money is yours on condition that you give some of it in charity and build mosques, just as I do. Allah has made the wealth grow in my hands, so keep my affair secret for as long as I live.’ (1)

Al-Ḥākim remarked: In those days the ruler would not interfere with an estate, yet he could not restrain himself from Daʿlaj’s wealth.

It was also said: Among the merchants of the world none was wealthier than he, and they even left his endowments untouched.

Al-Ḥākim further said: Daʿlaj purchased the Abbasid House in Mecca for thirty-thousand dinars.

Abū ʿUmar ibn Ḥayyuyah related: Daʿlaj ibn Aḥmad took me into his home and showed me a great cauldron packed with money. He said, ‘Take from it whatever you wish.’ I thanked him and said, ‘I have what suffices me.’

Abū ʿAlī ibn Shādhān, Ibn al-Faḍl the cotton-dealer, and Ibn Abī