Abu Saʿid ibn Yunus (1), author of “The History of Egypt,” is ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad ibn Yunus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, al-Ṣadafī (2), the Egyptian historian. He was a ḥāfiẓ (master memorizer of hadith), extremely prolific, and thoroughly versed in the annals and chronologies of humankind. He compiled a useful [indeed, excellent] (3) history for the people of Egypt and for all who visited the land. He had a son named Abu al-Ḥasan ʿAlī (4), an astronomer who produced a valuable zīj (astronomical table) to which specialists in that science still refer, just as the hadith scholars rely on the statements of his father and on what he recorded, transmitted, and narrated. Al-Ṣadafī [the historian] (5) was born in 281 AH and died in this year, on Monday the twenty-sixth of Jumada al-Akhira, in Cairo—may Allah have mercy upon him.

Ibn Daristawayh (6) the grammarian (7): ʿAbd Allah ibn Jaʿfar ibn Daristawayh ibn al-Marzuban, Abu Muḥammad, the Persian grammarian. He settled in Baghdad and heard hadith from ʿAbbās al-Dūrī, Ibn Qutaybah, and al-Mubarrad, while al-Dāraquṭnī and other ḥuffāẓ (hadith masters) narrated from him. More than one scholar praised him, among them Abu ʿAbd Allah ibn Mandah. His death occurred in Ṣafar of this same year. Al-Qāḍī Ibn Khallikān listed for him many beneficial works on language, grammar, and other disciplines (8).

Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan (9) ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī al-Shawārib, Abu al-Ḥasan, a Qurashi Umayyad, was the judge of Baghdad. He was of pleasant character and zealous in the pursuit of hadith; nevertheless, he was reputed to accept bribes in legal judgments and appointments—and Allah knows best.