Abū Muḥammad Jaʿfar (1) ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd Hibat-Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Irbilī: a man distinguished in many disciplines—jurisprudence according to the Shāfiʿī school, arithmetic, the laws of inheritance, geometry, belles-lettres, grammar, and the sciences connected with the Noble Quran, among others.
Among his fine poetry are these verses, composed in the basīṭ metre:
Nothing can repel what Fate brings to a man; in every calamity, if you ponder, lies a lesson.
When Destiny descends, neither counsel nor resolve, nor fear nor caution, can deliver one.
So practise patience in all affairs and never despair, for the outcome of patience is victory.
How often hardship has touched us once, only for the turns of time to remove it, and (2) ease to follow it in succession.
Let no one despair of the mercy of God; none despair of it save a band that disbelieve.
I know full well that the world turns in cycles, and that its two days are: one of safety and one of danger.
Then the year six-hundred-and-five began.
In Muḥarram of that year (3) the construction of the guesthouse in Baghdad (4) was completed. It had been founded by al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh on the western bank of the city for pilgrims and travellers: as long as they stayed there they were entertained, and when one of them resolved (5) to depart he was supplied, clothed, and then given a whole dinar for the journey—may Allah reward him well.
In the same year: Abū al-Khiṭāb Ibn Dihyah al-Kalbī (6) returned from his journey to Iraq. Passing through Syria, he attended a gathering of the vizier Ṣafī al-Dīn ibn Shukr (7) together with Shaykh Tāj al-Dīn Abū al-Yaman [Zayd ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Zayd] al-Kindī (8), the scholar of language and ḥadith. During the conversation Ibn Dihyah cited the ḥadith of intercession until he reached Abraham’s—peace be upon him—words: “I was only a friend min warāʾ warāʾ,” pronouncing both words with fatḥah. Al-Kindī objected: “min warāʾu warāʾu,” giving them both ḍamma. Ibn Dihyah then turned to the vizier and asked, “Who is this man?” He replied, “This is the shaykh Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī.” Whereupon Ibn Dihyah spoke ill of him, for he was a bold man