and among those who narrated from him were his son, the jurist Abū Bakr ibn Dāwūd, and Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Sājī.

Al-Khaṭīb (1) said: “He was a jurist and an ascetic. His books contain a large number of ḥadīth, yet reports transmitted from him are extremely rare.”

He died in Baghdad in this very year, having been born in the year 200 AH.

Shaykh Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī states in his “Ṭabaqāt” (2) that his lineage went back to Isfahān; he was born in Kūfah, raised in Baghdad, and in that city the leadership of learning eventually devolved upon him. Four hundred green ṭaylasān (mantles) would attend his teaching circle. He was strongly devoted to al-Shāfiʿī and composed (3) a book on the latter’s merits.

Another writer says that he was exemplary in prayer and humility.

Al-Azdī remarked, “His ḥadīth were abandoned,” but no one (4) followed al-Azdī in that judgment. It is, however, related from Imām Aḥmad that he spoke against him because of his statements about the Quran, namely that pronouncing it is created—an opinion likewise ascribed to Imām al-Bukhārī, may Allah have mercy on him.

I say: He was one of the well-known jurists, yet by denying sound qiyās (analogical reasoning) he restricted himself, so that in many areas of fiqh his scope became narrow, obliging him to adopt grievous positions that resulted from sticking to the mere outward wording without understanding the intent of the texts. The jurists who employ analogy [al-fuqahāʾ] (5) later differed over whether his dissent is to be considered: does consensus stand without his concurrence when he disagrees, or not? There are several views on this, which are not to be detailed here.

Among those who also died this year were:

– al-Rabīʿ ibn Sulaymān al-Murādī (6), a companion of al-Shāfiʿī, whose biography we have given in “Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyyah.”

– The judge Bakkār ibn Qutaybah, who held the judiciary in the Egyptian territories from 246 AH until he died there, imprisoned by Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn because he refused to depose al-Muwaffaq in 270 AH, may Allah have mercy on him. He was a scholar, a worshipper, an ascetic, much given to Quran recitation and to calling himself to account. After his death the office of judge in Egypt remained vacant for three years. Ibn Khallikān (7) has given a full biography of him in “al-Wafayāt,” may Allah have mercy on him.