He used to claim that he was descended (1) from Abu Bakr al-Siddiq—may Allah be pleased with him. He studied hadith, mastered jurisprudence, issued fatwas, lectured at the Nizamiyya, and founded for himself a school and a ribat. Together with all that, he was a Sufi who preached to the public, and he was buried in the school he had built.

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Abī al-Ḥusayn, (2) Abū al-Fath al-Rāzī (3), known as al-ʿAlāʾ al-ʿĀlim, was a native of Samarqand. He ranked among the foremost debaters; he had a distinctive method in matters of disagreement and dialectics, and his gloss (4) is called al-ʿAlāmī. Ibn al-Jawzī (5) said, “He came to Baghdad and attended my session.”

Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī said: “He was an habitual wine-drinker. He used to say, ‘Nothing in this world is more delightful than a book I am reading and a bowl of wine (6) from which I drink.’”

Ibn al-Jawzī said: “It later reached me (7) that he had abandoned wine-drinking and disputation, and had turned to ascetic devotion (8) and good works, [may Allah have mercy on him] (9).”

Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Bundār al-Dimashqī (10), lecturer at the Nizamiyya in Baghdad, studied jurisprudence under Asʿad al-Mīhanī, excelled in debate, and was a staunch partisan of the Ashʿarī school. In this same year he was dispatched as an envoy to Shumla the Turkmen (11), and he died in that land—may Allah (12) have mercy on him.