He is the brother of the vizier, al-Afḍal, Diyāʾ al-Dīn Naṣr Allāh,(1) and of the ḥadith scholar ʿIzz al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī,(2) the author of al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh.

Abū al-Saʿādāt al-Mubārak(3) was born in one of the two months of Rabīʿ(4) in the year 544 AH. He listened to a vast store of ḥadith, recited the Noble Qurʾān, mastered its sciences, and acquired abundant knowledge.(5) His permanent residence was Mosul. In the various disciplines he compiled a number of useful books, among them the compendium Jāmiʿ al-Uṣūl of the Six Sources: the Muwaṭṭaʾ, the two Ṣaḥīḥs, Sunan Abī Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, and al-Tirmidhī. He did not include Ibn Mājah in it.(6) He also authored al-Nihāya fī Gharīb al-Ḥadīth, a commentary on the Musnad of al-Shāfiʿī,(7) a Qurʾān commentary in four volumes, and other works across a range of fields.

May Allah have mercy on him, he was held in high esteem by the rulers of Mosul. When authority passed to Nūr al-Dīn Arslān Shāh(8) ibn Masʿūd ibn Mawdūd ibn Zangī, the latter sent his mamluk Luʾluʾ to invite him to accept the vizierate, but he refused. The sultan then came to him in person, yet he again declined, saying: “I have grown old and am known for disseminating knowledge; this office cannot be administered without some measure of coercion and injustice,(9) and such conduct does not befit me.” The sultan therefore excused him.

Abū al-Saʿādāt said: “I was studying Arabic with Saʿīd ibn al-Dahhān,(10) and he(11) used to urge me to practice the craft of poetry, but I was unable to do so. After the shaykh died, I saw him one night and he renewed the command. I said to him, ‘Set before me a model that I may follow.’ He replied:

(from the Basīṭ metre)

Love of high rank(12)—pursue it constantly; if triumph eludes you,
and press your cheek to the dust(13) while night is thick with gloom.”