Abū Naṣr ibn Mākuwlā (1) ʿAlī ibn Hibat Allah ibn ʿAlī (2) ibn Jaʿfar ibn ʿAlī (3) ibn Muḥammad ibn Dulaf ibn Abī Dulaf al-Amīr.
He was born in 402 AH, heard a vast number of reports, and was counted among the ḥuffāẓ (hadith masters). He authored the book al-Ikmāl fī al-Muʾtalif wa-al-Mukhtalif (4), in which he combined the works of ʿAbd al-Ghanī ibn Saʿīd, al-Dāraqutnī and others, adding to them many important, fine and beneficial matters. He was a distinguished grammarian, eloquent in expression, and a capable poet. Ibn al-Jawzī (5) said: “I heard our shaykh ʿAbd al-Wahhāb disparage his religious commitment, saying, ‘Knowledge is in need of religion.’” (6)
He was killed in Khūzistān in this year [or the year after], being over eighty, as Ibn al-Jawzī relates.

[Then the year 487 AH began]
In it the caliph al-Muqtadī died, and his son al-Mustazhir Billah assumed the caliphate.

[The manner of his death:] When the sultan Barkiyāruq arrived in Baghdad, he asked the caliph to issue a decree investing him with the sultanate. The document was written, robes of honour were prepared, and they were presented to the caliph. This took place on Friday, the fourteenth of Muḥarram. Food was then brought to him; he ate from it as usual while in perfect health. He then washed his hands and sat reviewing the deed after he had signed it, and beside him stood a qahramāna (female chamberlain) named Shams al-Nahār.
She said: “He looked at me and asked, ‘Who are these people who have entered upon us without permission?’” She continued: “I turned around but saw no one, while I noticed that his condition had changed: his hands and feet slackened, his strength ebbed, and he collapsed to the ground.” She said: “I thought he had merely fainted, so I loosened