attained anything comparable, nor is anyone likely ever to rival it (1).
He was born in 446 AH. He heard hadith, devoted himself to language and grammar, and authored works in all these fields; he surpassed the scholars of his day and outshone his peers (2). He settled in Baghdad and practised the craft of epistolary composition alongside the chancery scribes at the caliphal gate. Never was his improvisation censured, nor did his thoughts ever lose their clarity.
Ibn al-Jawzi (3) said: "He heard hadith, read adab (4) and linguistics, and eclipsed his contemporaries in intelligence and keenness, eloquence and the beauty of his phrasing. He composed (5) the famous Maqāmāt; whoever studies them recognises the stature of their author (6)." He died in this same year, in Basra.
It has been said that Abū Zayd and al-Ḥārith ibn Ḥammām (7) never existed at all; rather, he introduced them into the Maqāmāt as proverbial figures. Others maintain that Abū Zayd al-Muṭahhar (8) ibn Salām al-Sarūjī was in fact a real person, a virtuous man possessed of knowledge and mastery of language—Allah knows best.
Qāḍī Ibn Khallikān reports that Abū Zayd’s name was al-Muṭahhar ibn Salām (9), that he was a Basran distinguished in grammar and lexicography, and that he used to study under (10) al-Ḥarīrī in Basra. As for al-Ḥārith ibn Ḥammām, he is “self-sufficient” (11), for the hadith states: "All of you are ḥārith and all of you are hammām" (12).
(1) Present only in the printed edition.
(2) In manuscripts A and B: “ikhwanahu” (his brothers).
(3) al-Muntazam 9/241.
(4) In A and B: “wasamiʿa al-hadith wa haddatha wa qaraʾa” (he heard the hadith, narrated it, and read); in the printed edition: “sanafa wa qaraʾa al-adab” (he compiled and read al-Adab).
(5) In al-Muntazam: “wa anshaʾa” (and he founded).
(6) Afterwards in the edition: “wa qadruhu wa fasaḥatuhu wa ʿilmuhu” (and his authority, eloquence, and knowledge). This phrase is not in al-Muntazam.
(7) Afterwards in the edition: “al-muṭahhir” (the purifier).
(8) Not in the edition.
(9) In al-Wafayāt: “sallar.”
(10) In the edition: “ʿalayhi” (on/about him).
(11) In manuscript A: “fa innamā ghaniya bihi nafsuhu” (for he is enriched by it alone).
(12) Shaykh Muḥammad Darwīsh al-Ḥūt states in his Asnā al-Maṭālib fī Aḥādīth Mukhtalifa al-Marātib: “This is not a hadith.” Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Sakhāwī writes in al-Maqāṣid al-Ḥasanah (p. 319): “Al-Ḥarīrī mentioned it at the outset of his Maqāmāt and classified it among his maqūlāt.” I add: The hadith conveying this meaning, with its preserved wording—as the author (may Allah have mercy on him) notes—follows. It is the report of Abū Wahb al-Jashmī, who related that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “Adopt the names of the prophets; the most beloved names to Allah are ʿAbd Allāh and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān; the truest are Ḥārith and Himmām; and the least desirable are Ḥarb and Marrah.” It is recorded by Aḥmad in his Musnad (4/345), by al-Bukhārī in Al-Adab al-Mufrad (2/277), and by Abū Dāwūd in his Sunan (no. 4950), with ʿUqayl ibn Shubayb—an unknown transmitter—in the chain, though the other narrators are reliable. I note: its isnād is weak (ʿa).