He wrote a commentary on Sībawayh, which he presented to the ruler of the Maghrib, who rewarded him with one thousand dinars. He also produced a commentary on al-Zajjājī’s “Jumal.” A perpetual traveler, he moved from land to land and lodged only in caravanserais; he never married at all, nor did he ever take a concubine (1). In his final years his mind deteriorated, and he would walk through the markets bare-headed. He died (2) in this same year (3) at the age of eighty-five.
Abū ʿAlī Yaḥyā ibn al-Rabīʿ (4) ibn Sulaymān ibn Ḥarrāz, originally from Wāsiṭ and later of Baghdad.
He studied at the Niẓāmiyya under [Ibn] Faḍlān and served there as a teaching assistant. He then travelled (5) to Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā and adopted from him the method of legal disputation, after which he returned to Baghdad. In due course he became professor at the Niẓāmiyya and supervisor of its awqāf (endowments) (6). He had heard hadith, possessed wide learning, and held a sound grasp of the madhhab. He composed a Qur’an commentary in four volumes from which he used to teach (7), and he produced an abridgment of al-Khaṭīb’s “Tārīkh” together with the “Dhayl” to it by Ibn al-Samʿānī. He lived to nearly eighty years—may Allah have mercy on him.
Ibn al-Athīr (8), author of “Jāmiʿ al-Uṣūl” (9) and “al-Nihāya” (10): al-Mubārak ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid, Majd al-Dīn Abū al-Saʿādāt al-Shaybānī al-Jazarī al-Shāfiʿī, better known as Ibn al-Athīr.
(1) After this, the printed edition reads "…hence a disposition that overcomes the nature of base men." We do not consider this part of Ibn Kathir’s wording or opinion: his teacher, the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya, did not marry, nor did other senior pious scholars. Moreover, this phrase does not appear in any existing manuscript, so it is clearly an interpolation.
(2) In the printed edition: "died."
(3) Numerous accounts of his death are recorded by biographers such as Ibn Khallikan and others.
(4) Biographical entry for Ibn Harrāz in: al-Kāmil by Ibn al-Athīr, vol. 12, p. 120; al-Takmīla li-Wafayāt al-Naqqāla, vol. 2, p. 189; Dhayl al-Rawdatayn, p. 69; al-ʿIbar, vol. 5, p. 20; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 21, p. 486; Ṭabaqāt al-Isnawī, vol. 2, p. 548; Ṭabaqāt al-Subkī, vol. 5, p. 165; Ghāyat al-Nihāya, vol. 22, p. 370; al-Nujūm al-Zāhira, vol. 6, p. 196; Shadharāt al-Dhahab, vol. 7, p. 45.
(5) In the printed edition: "and he reported it again and traveled."
(6) In manuscript A: "awqātihā."
(7) In manuscript B: "wa-kāna."
(8) Biographical entry for Ibn al-Athīr in: Muʿjam al-Udabāʾ, vol. 17, p. 71; al-Kāmil by Ibn al-Athīr, vol. 12, p. 120; Inbāh al-Ruwāt, vol. 3, p. 257; al-Takmīla li-Wafayāt al-Naqqāla, vol. 2, p. 191; Dhayl al-Rawdatayn, p. 69; Wafayāt al-Aʿyān, vol. 4, p. 141; Mukhtaṣar Abī al-Fidāʾ, vol. 3, p. 118; al-ʿIbar, vol. 5, p. 19; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 21, p. 488; Ṭabaqāt al-Isnawī, vol. 1, p. 130; Ṭabaqāt al-Subkī, vol. 5, p. 153; al-Nujūm al-Zāhira, vol. 6, p. 198; Bughyaẗ al-Wuʿahāʾ, vol. 2, p. 274; Shadharāt al-Dhahab, vol. 7, p. 42.
(9) Jamiʿ al-Usul. 1st ed., Ansar al-Sunnah al-Muhammadiyah Press, Cairo, ed. Muḥammad Ḥāmid al-Fiḳī; 2nd ed., ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-ʿArnāʾūṭ. Supplement supervised by ʿArnāʾūṭ.
(10) al-Nihāya fī Gharīb al-Ḥadīth wa-l-Athar. Cairo, ed. Taher al-Zāwī and Maḥmūd Muḥammad al-Ṭanāḥī, 1963.