one hundred Qur’anic commentaries and one hundred histories; he left behind eighteen chests filled with books, most of them in his own hand, apart from what had been stolen from him. His handwriting (1) was exceptionally clear, and in spite of that he kept a slave-girl who would proofread with him (2) whatever he wrote (3). May Allah, exalted is He, have mercy on him.

Muhammad ibn ʿImrān ibn Mūsā ibn ʿUbayd (4), Abū ʿUbayd Allah (5), the chancery secretary known as Ibn al-Marzubān.
He transmitted from al-Baghawī, Ibn Durayd, and others, and he was a scholar of historical reports (6) and belles-lettres. He authored many books on attractive branches of learning (7), and his teachers and other scholars would attend his sessions, spending the night in his house where bedding, food, and other comforts were provided.

Whenever ʿAḍud al-Dawla passed by his residence, he would not proceed until he had sent for him so that he might come out and exchange greetings.
Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī used to say, “He is one of the adornments of this world.”
Al-ʿUtayqī (8) said, “He was reliable.”
Al-Azharī said, “He was not reliable.”
Ibn al-Jawzī remarked, “He was not among the liars; rather, he inclined toward Shiʿism and the Muʿtazilite school, and he would mingle what he had heard with what he had only received by ijāza (9).”
He lived to the age of eighty-eight; may Allah Most High have mercy on him.

[Then the year 385 AH began]

In that year Fakhr al-Dawla ibn Rukn al-Dawla ibn Būyah appointed Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḍabbī, nicknamed al-Kāfī, as vizier after the death of al-Ṣāhib Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbbād. He was among the most celebrated of viziers.