and he built the mausoleum of Shaykh Abū Isḥāq. Sultan Malikshāh had intended to appoint him vizier after Niẓām al-Mulk, but the Sultan died soon afterward. He was therefore made vizier for Malikshāh’s son Maḥmūd; when Maḥmūd was overpowered by his brother Barkiyāruq, the retainers of Niẓām al-Mulk killed him and hacked him to pieces in Dhū al-Ḥijjah of this same year.

Hibat Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Wārith ibn ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Barzah (1), Abū al-Qāsim al-Shīrāzī,
was one of the two famed itinerant scholars who ranged across distant lands. He was a ḥāfiẓ, trustworthy, devout, God-fearing, sound in creed and conduct, and he composed a fine History (2). Students travelled to him from Baghdad and elsewhere. Allah knows best—may He have mercy on him.

Then came the year 486 AH.

In that year a man called Ardashīr (3) ibn Manṣūr, Abū al-Ḥusayn al-ʿAbbādī, arrived in Baghdad on his way back from the ḥajj. He lodged at the Niẓāmiyya, preached to the people, and al-Ghazālī attended his sessions. The crowds at his sermons were immense (and gatherings multiplied thereafter, so that many people left their occupations) (4); on some occasions nearly thirty thousand men and women were present. Many repented, attached themselves to the mosques, wine was poured out, and musical instruments were smashed. The man himself was righteous, constant in worship, and deeply ascetic (with commendable spiritual states). People thronged to obtain the leftover water from his wuḍūʾ (ritual ablution), and would even take water from the basin in which he washed, seeking its blessing.

Ibn al-Jawzī (5) relates that he once expressed to some companions a desire for Levantine mulberries and snow-ice. One of them searched the entire city but found none. When he returned he discovered the shaykh in seclusion and asked, “Has anyone visited the shaykh today?” They answered, “A woman came and said, ‘I have spun some yarn with my own hands and sold it, and I wish to buy the shaykh a treat.’ He refused, whereupon she wept; feeling compassion, he told her, ‘Go and buy something.’ She asked, ‘What should I buy?’ He replied, ‘Whatever you like.’ She went off and brought him Levantine mulberries and snow-ice, which he ate.”

Someone else said: “I entered upon him while he was drinking broth, and I thought to myself, ‘If only he would give me the remainder so that I might drink it to aid my memorization—”