The leading authority of the Shafiʿi school and professor at the Niẓāmiyyah, he was born in 393 AH. He first studied jurisprudence in Fars with Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Bayḍāwī, then came to Baghdad in 415 AH, where he continued his studies with Qāḍī Abū al-Ṭayyib al-Ṭabarī and heard hadith from Ibn Shādhān and al-Barqānī. He was an ascetic, devoted worshipper, and scrupulously pious; highly esteemed and venerated, an imam in jurisprudence, legal theory, hadith, and many other fields. Among his numerous beneficial works are al-Muhadhdhab [in Shafiʿi law], al-Tanbīh, al-Nukat, al-Khilāf, al-Lumaʿ fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh, al-Tabṣirah, al-Maʿūnah, Ṭabaqāt al-Fuqahāʾ, and others.

I say: I have given his full biography at the beginning of my Commentary on al-Tanbīh. He died in Jumādā al-Ākhirah, in the house of Abū al-Muẓaffar, son of Raʾīs al-Ruʾasāʾ. He was washed by Abū al-Wafāʾ Ibn ʿAqīl the Ḥanbalī. The funeral prayer was first held at Bāb al-Firdaws in the Caliphal palace and attended by al-Muqtadī bi-Amr Allāh; it was led by Abū al-Fatḥ al-Muẓaffar ibn Raʾīs al-Ruʾasāʾ, then acting vizier. A second prayer was performed in the Palace Mosque, after which he was buried at Bāb Arz in a cemetery adjacent to the Tājiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him. Poets praised him during his life and after his death, and he himself composed graceful verse. Among the lines cited by Ibn Khallikān are:

I asked the people for a loyal friend,
But they replied, “That path is closed.”
So cling—if ever you gain the affection (1) of a free man—
For free men in this world are few.

Ibn Khallikān further relates: When he died, the jurists held his condolence gathering at the Niẓāmiyyah, and Muʾayyid al-Mulk appointed Abū Saʿd to take his place. When the news reached Niẓām al-Mulk he wrote, “It would have been fitting for the madrasa to be closed for a whole year on his account,” and he ordered that Shaykh Abū Naṣr ibn al-Ṣabbāgh assume the teaching.

Ṭāhir ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Qawwās (2)
He recited the Qur’an, heard hadith, and studied jurisprudence with Qāḍī Abū al-Ṭayyib al-Ṭabarī. He issued legal opinions and taught, maintaining a circle for debate and fatwa in the Mosque of al-Manṣūr. Trustworthy, scrupulous, and ascetic, he remained constant in his mosque for fifty years. He died this year at the age of eighty-six and was buried near Imām Aḥmad—may Allah have mercy on him.

Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl (3), Abū Ṭāhir al-Anbārī, the preacher, known as Ibn Abī al-Ṣaqr.