87 – Al-Balkhī, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad
The leading authority of the Ḥanafī school, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad al-Balkhī was a paragon to whom comparisons were drawn and was styled “the younger Abū Ḥanīfah.”
He narrated hadith from Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl al-Balkhī and studied jurisprudence under Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Abī Saʿīd.
Imams of learning took knowledge from him.
He was also known as “al-Hinduwānī,” for he was from the quarter of Bāb Hinduwān (1).
He died in 362 AH, when he was in his early seventies.
88 – Ibn Hānī, Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad al-Azdī al-Muhallabī
The pre-eminent poet of the era, Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Hānī al-Azdī al-Muhallabī al-Andalusī—said to be a descendant of al-Muhallab—had a father who was also a poet, and Muḥammad himself was additionally known by the kunya Abū al-Qāsim.
(*) al-Lubab, 3/393–394; al-Ibar, 2/328; al-Wafi bi-l-wafayat, 3/347; al-Nujum al-zahira, 4/9; Shadharat al-dhahab, 3/41; Hadiyat al-arifin, 2/47.
(1) The author of al-Lubab, al-Hinduwani, explains that the nisba “Hinduwani” comes from a quarter of Balkh called “Bab Hinduwan,” so named because the slave boys and girls brought from India used to lodge there.
(**) Jadhwat al-muqtabis, 96; Bughyat al-multamis, 140–141; Mu jam al-udaba, 19/92–105; al-Mutrib min ash ar ahl al-Maghrib, 192; al-Takmila by Ibn al-Abbar, 1/103; Wafayat al-ayan, 4/421–424; al-Mukhtasar fi akhbar al-bashar, 2/112; al-Ibar, 2/328–329; al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya, 11/274; al-Ihata fi akhbar Gharnata, 2/288–293; al-Falaka wa-l-maflukun, 102; al-Nujum al-zahira, 4/67–68; Nafh al-tib, 1/293, 400; 3/164, 207, 407, 443, 453, 605; 4/40, 86; Shadharat al-dhahab, 3/41–44; Hadiyat al-arifin, 2/47.