he studied jurisprudence under al-Ghazālī and al-Kiyā al-Harrāsī (1) and Abū Bakr (2) al-Shāshī. He excelled in legal theory (uṣūl); in that field he wrote a treatise entitled Al-Wajīz (3) fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh. He was also proficient in several other disciplines (4), and he was appointed to teach at the Niẓāmiyya of Baghdad after less than a month. [According to Ibn Khallikān, may Allah have mercy on him, he died in this same year] (5).

Bahrām ibn Bahrām, Abū Shujāʿ al-Bayyiʿ (6): he studied ḥadīth, built a madrasa for the adherents of Imām Aḥmad in Kalwadhā (7), and set aside part of his estate for the jurists.

Ṣāʿid ibn Sayyār (8) ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm, Abū al-ʿAlāʾ (9) al-Isḥāqī al-Harawī, the ḥāfiẓ, was one of the meticulous authorities; he heard a great many traditions and transmitted them. He died this year in Ghūrij, a village at the gate of Harārah (10).

[Then the year 521 AH began]

The year opened with the caliph and Sultan Maḥmūd at war. The caliph was in his pavilion on the western side, and on Wednesday, the 4th of Muḥarram, a detachment from the sultan’s army reached the caliphal palace. One thousand fully armed soldiers entered, looted the treasures, and the slave-girls fled, unveiled, crying for help until they reached the residence of Khātūn (11).

Ibn al-Jawzī (12) remarked: “I saw them in that very state.”