I add: al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Baybars purchased his house, then converted it into a madrasa, a ḥadith college, and a funerary lodge in which his own grave now lies ⦗1⦘. This occurred about the year 670 AH, as will be explained below.
Abū Saʿīd al-Sīrāfī ⦗2⦘—the grammarian, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Marzbān, known also as Abū Saʿīd the judge—took up residence in Baghdad and served there as deputy qāḍī. He authored A Commentary on Sībawayh’s Book and The Classes of Grammarians.
He transmitted learning from Abū Bakr ibn Durayd and others; his father had been a Magian ⦗3⦘. Abū Saʿīd himself was accomplished in lexicography, Qurʾānic readings, grammar, prosody, the laws of inheritance, arithmetic, and many other fields. An ascetic, he lived only on the earnings of his own hand, copying ten folios each day for ten dirhams, from which he met his expenses. He was among the foremost authorities on the grammar of the Basrans, yet in jurisprudence he inclined to the legal school of the people of Iraq ⦗4⦘. He learned the Qurʾānic readings from Ibn Mujāhid, language from Ibn Durayd, and grammar from Ibn al-Sarrāj and the two Mabramāns ⦗5⦘. Some attributed to him Muʿtazilite views, while others rejected the claim. He died in Rajab of this very year at the age of eighty-four and was buried in the Cemetery of al-Khayzurān.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Yūsuf ⦗6⦘—Abū’l-Qāsim al-Jurjānī ⦗7⦘, also known as al-Ābandūnī ⦗8⦘—travelled far and wide in quest of knowledge and ḥadith, sharing part of his journeys with Ibn ʿAdī. He later settled in Baghdad, where he narrated traditions from Abū Yaʿlā, al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān, Ibn Khuzayma, and others. He was a reliable, exacting transmitter, an author, and a man of renunciation.
Al-Barqānī received ḥadith from him, spoke highly of him, and related that most of his sustenance consisted of bread soaked in broad-bean broth; he also mentioned
(1) This refers to the Zahirī school, which was also the seat of the Dār al-Kutub al-Zahiriyya (Zahiriyya Library) in Damascus.
(2) Tabaqāt al-Naḥwiyyīn wa-al-Lughawiyyīn (pp. 129–130); Tarīkh Baghdād (vol. 7, pp. 341–342); Ansāb (vol. 7, pp. 218–219); Nuzhat al-Albāʾ (pp. 307–308); al-Muntazam fī Tārīkh al-Mulūk wa-al-Umam (vol. 7, p. 95); Muʿjam al-Udabāʾ (vol. 8, pp. 145–232); Inbāʾ al-Ruwāt (vol. 1, pp. 313–315); al-Lubāb fī Tahdhīb al-Ansāb (vol. 2, p. 165); Wafayāt al-Aʿyān (vol. 2, pp. 78–79); Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ (vol. 16, pp. 247–249); al-Wāfī bil-Wafayāt (vol. 2, p. 74); Bughyat al-Wuʿāhāʾ (vol. 1, pp. 507–509); Shadharāt adh-Dhahab wa-Nuzha al-Athar (vol. 2, pp. 65–66).
(3) In Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ (vol. 16, p. 248): “His father was Magian (Zoroastrian) and embraced Islam.”
(4) In manuscript H: “and their qirāʾāt (readings),” as though interpolated. See Tarīkh Baghdād (vol. 7, p. 341). The expression “madhhab of the people of Iraq” here denotes the madhhab of Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān (may Allah have mercy on him).
(5) In manuscripts H, T and B the name appears as Ibn al-Marzubān, a scribal error. The correct form, as established by Tarīkh Baghdād (vol. 7, p. 342) and al-Muntazam (vol. 7, p. 95), is al-Mubarram—the laqab of Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Naḥwī al-ʿAskarī. He studied grammar under al-Mubarrad—hence his laqab—on account of his constant attendance upon and questioning of him. He died in 326 AH. See his entry in Inbāʾ al-Ruwāt (vol. 3, pp. 189–190).
(6) Tarīkh Baghdād (vol. 9, pp. 407–408); Ansāb (vol. 1, pp. 91–92); al-Muntazam (vol. 7, pp. 95–96); Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ (vol. 16, pp. 261–263); al-Nujūm al-Zāhira (vol. 4, p. 133); Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥifāẓ (pp. 380–381); Shadharāt adh-Dhahab wa-Nuzha al-Athar (vol. 3, p. 66).
(7) In manuscripts H, B and T the name appears as al-Zanjānī, and in T as al-Rīḥānī—both scribal errors. This edition follows Ibn al-Jawzī in al-Muntazam (vol. 7, p. 95), the correct reading being confirmed by Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ (vol. 16, p. 261).
(8) In manuscripts H, B and T the name appears as al-Abindarī, a scribal error. The correct form is attested in Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ (vol. 16, p. 261).