Ibn Khallikān said: He studied jurisprudence under Abū al-Fath Nāṣir (1) ibn Muḥammad al-ʿUmrī al-Marwazī; thereafter ḥadīth predominated in his concerns, he became famous for it, and he journeyed in its pursuit.
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Khalaf ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Farrāʾ (2), the judge Abū Yaʿlā, shaykh of the Ḥanbalīs and the one who laid the foundations of their school in subsidiary rulings, was born in Muḥarram 380 AH. He heard a vast amount of ḥadīth and related from Ibn Ḥabāba.
Ibn al-Jawzī said: He was among the foremost of the reliable scholars. He testified before Ibn Mākūlā and Ibn al-Dāmghānī, and both accepted him. He was placed in charge of judicial oversight within the precincts of the caliphal residence. A leading authority in fiqh, he produced many fine works within the school of Aḥmad, taught and issued fatwas for many years, and the madhhab eventually converged upon him. His writings and his students spread far and wide. He combined trustworthiness, truthfulness, chastity, good character, devotion, asceticism, humility, dignified bearing, and silence concerning what did not concern him.
He passed away on the twentieth of Ramaḍān of this year, aged seventy-eight. Judges and notables—jurists and court witnesses—gathered for his funeral. The day was extremely hot, and some who followed his bier broke their fast. He was survived by three sons: ʿUbayd Allāh Abū al-Qāsim, Abū Ḥāzim, and Abū al-Ḥusayn.
Someone saw him in a dream and asked, “What has Allah done with you?” He replied, “He showed me mercy, honored me, raised my station, and ennobled me.” As he counted these favors on his fingers, he was asked, “By virtue of knowledge?” He answered, “By virtue of truthfulness.” May Allah have mercy on him.
Ibn Sīdah the linguist (3)—Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Mursī—was an eminent preserver of Arabic. Blind from birth, as was his father from whom he first learned language and Arabic, he later studied under Abū al-ʿAlāʾ Ṣāʿid al-Baghdādī. Among his books are al-Muḥkam, in multiple volumes, and a Commentary on the Ḥamāsa in six volumes, in addition to other works. He recited from memory, without looking at a text, the book al-Gharīb al-Muṣannaf by Abū ʿUbayd to Shaykh Abū ʿUmar al-Mālikī [al-Ṭalamankī], while the shaykh followed along in his own copy; the listeners heard his flawless recitation and were astonished.
He died in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir of this year at the age of sixty. Some say he died in 448 AH, but the first report is more reliable—and Allah knows best.