—a trustworthy, devout, ascetic, and scrupulous man—none of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī’s sons was better than he (1). He never accepted the offices and governorships to which the others aspired; rather, he made do with little of this world and applied himself to the concerns of the Hereafter. He listened to a great many narrations, and a great many were also transmitted from him.
Abū al-Ḥaram (2) Makkī ibn Rayyān (3) ibn Shabbah ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Māksinī (4), originally from the Sinjār district and later the Mosuli grammarian, came to Baghdad and studied under Ibn al-Khushshāb (5), Ibn al-ʿAṣṣā (6), and Kamāl al-Dīn al-Anbārī (7). He then travelled to Syria, where large numbers benefited from his teaching, among them Shaykh ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī and others. Blind from birth, he was an ardent admirer of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, the two sharing both literary genius and blindness (8).
Among his poetry (9) are the following lines—
(from the wāfir metre)
When generosity must seek an intercessor,
reject it and you will rise (10) with a tranquil eye;
If a gift is shunned for the burden of one single favour,
how much more rightly is it shunned when the burden is two!
Another of his poems runs—
(from the munsariḥ metre)
(1) A: “There was none among his brothers better than him.”
(2) The biography of Makki ibn Rāyān is found in: Mu‘jam al-Adabā’ (vol. 19, p. 171); Al-Kāmil by Ibn al-Athīr (vol. 12, p. 108); Inbāh al-Ruwāt (vol. 3, p. 320); at-Takmila li-Wafayāt al-Naqala (vol. 2, p. 117); Dhayl al-Rawdhatayn (p. 58); Wafayāt al-A‘yān (vol. 5, p. 278); Tārīkh al-Islām (vol. 13, p. 87); Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’ (vol. 21, p. 425); al-‘Ubar (vol. 5, p. 8); Nukat al-Humayān (p. 46); Ghayat al-Nihāya (vol. 2, p. 309); Bughiyat al-Wu‘āh (vol. 2, p. 299); and Shudhūrāt al-Dhahab (vol. 7, p. 21).
(3) In edition T the name appears as “Abu al-Ḥazm Makki ibn Ziyān,” which involves two errors. Abu Shāmah rightly observes that scribal mistakes often affect the names of one’s father or grandfather: the correct spelling of his father’s name begins with r followed by a single hamza, whereas Wafayāt al-A‘yān gives it with two hamzas—the correct form—and “Shabba” follows the pattern of “Habba.”
(4) Al-Māksīnī is the nisba of Māksīn (with a kasra under the k), a locality on the Khabur near Rahbat Malik ibn Tuwaq in Diyar Rābi‘ah. According to Buldān al-Khilāfa, Māksīn lies between ‘Arābān and al-Qirqisiyā at the ferry crossing of the Khabur, and nearby is a small lake called al-Manharaq (see Mu‘jam al-Buldān, vol. 5, p. 43; Buldān al-Khilāfa, p. 127).
(5) Ibn al-Khashshāb is ‘Abdallāh b. Aḥmad b. Aḥmad b. Aḥmad. His biography was given under the year 567 in the previous volume.
(6) Ibn al-‘Aṣār is ‘Alī b. ‘Abd al-Raḥīm b. al-Ḥasan al-Sulamī al-Abbasī, later known in Baghdad as a linguist and pupil of al-Jawāliqī. He was praised for his elegant handwriting and meticulous notation. He died in 576 AH (see Mu‘jam al-Adabā’, vol. 14, p. 10; Inbāh al-Ruwāt, vol. 2, p. 1291; Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’, vol. 20, p. 578; Bughiyat al-Wu‘āh, vol. 2, p. 175). Bashshār notes that the edition reads “al-Qiṣṣār” (with qaf), which is erroneous.
(7) Al-Kamāl al-Anbārī is ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. ‘Ubayd Allāh. His biography appears under the year 577 in the previous volume.
(8) A: reads “al-adab wa-al-ma‘nā wa-al-ma‘ammā.”
(9) The two verses are found in the Dhayl of Abū Shāmah, in Mu‘jam al-Adabā’, and in Wafayāt al-A‘yān.
(10) B reads “naṣaḥ”; in edition T it reads “tuṣbiḥ.” Neither is satisfactory: “naṣaḥ” fails to make coherent sense, and “tuṣbiḥ” does not scan properly.