the foot of the hill, where there was no building (1) except the Dayr al-Ḥawrānī (2). He said, “People began to call us al-ṣāliḥīn—‘the righteous’—(3) because of our connection to the Mosque of Abū Ṣāliḥ, not because we were righteous ourselves, and from that moment the area came to be known as al-Ṣāliḥiyya after us.”
Shaykh Abū ʿUmar (4) recited the Quran according to the reading of Abū ʿAmr and memorised the legal compendium Mukhtaṣar al-Khiraqī (5)—[which his brother later produced a commentary on] (6). He copied out that commentary with his own hand, as well as al-Baghawī’s Tafsīr, Abū Nuʿaym’s Ḥilya, and Ibn Baṭṭa’s al-Ibāna; moreover, he wrote numerous Qur’an manuscripts for both the public and his family without taking any payment (7).
He was devoted to worship and night vigil (8), fasting continually; [of pleasant appearance, slender of build, and suffused with the radiance of devotion]. He was always smiling. Each day he would recite one-seventh of the Quran between Ẓuhr and ʿAṣr, and he performed eight rakʿahs of the Ḍuḥā prayer in which he recited “Say: He is Allah, the One” a thousand times. Every Monday and Thursday he visited the Cave of Blood.
On his way he would gather wild wormwood and give it to widows and the poor, and whatever windfalls or gifts came to him he shared with his family and the needy.
His clothing was exceedingly simple; long periods might pass in which he wore neither trousers nor a tunic. [He would tear strips from his turban to give in charity or to complete the shroud of someone deceased] (9).
He, his brother, and their cousin (10) the ḥadith scholar ʿAbd al-Ghanī (11), together with their brother Shaykh al-ʿImād, never ceased taking part in military expeditions.
(1) Masjid Abī Ṣāliḥ is located outside the Eastern Gate. Abī Ṣāliḥ was Muflih ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥanbalī, who died in 530 AH. See Tarīkh Dimashq, vol. 2, p. 81; al-A‘lāq al-Khaṭīrah, p. 136; al-Dāris, vol. 2, p. 101; Tarīkh al-Ṣāliḥiyyah, vol. 1, p. 25. Its margin notes: “This mosque was demolished and nothing remains of it. Its site is enclosed by a rammed-earth wall, within which lies a tomb known as Shaykh Ṣāliḥ, to whom the inhabitants of the surrounding villages and orchards make vows.”
(2) Dayr al-Ḥurrānī is mentioned by Ibn Ṭūlūn in Adīrat al-Ṣāliḥiyyah. It lies west of Dayr al-Ḥanābila at the foot of the mountain. See Tarīkh al-Ṣāliḥiyyah, p. 40, et al. Note: Dayr al-Ḥanābila is today called Jāmiʿ al-Ḥanābila; it stands at the end of the Abī Jarash market, adjoining the Shaykh Muḥyī al-Dīn market.
(3) Edition reading: “It has been said that al-Ṣāliḥiyyīn denotes those affiliated with the Abī Ṣāliḥ Mosque.”
(4) Alternate version reads: “Masjid Abī Ṣāliḥ, because we are called the Ṣāliḥiyyīn,” as the Shaykh read it.
(5) The author of this Mukhtaṣar is al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Kharaqī, father of Abū al-Qāsim. He died in 299 AH. The Mukhtaṣar was published in Damascus, edited by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Arnāʾūṭ in collaboration with other scholars.
(6) Edition reading: “Then his brother al-Muwaffaq later wrote its commentary.”
(7) Manuscript note: “Except for a fee.”
(8) Edition reading: “He frequently practiced worship, asceticism, and tahajjud (night prayer).”
(9) Edition reading: “Provide the shroud for anyone who lacks one.”
(10) In the printed edition it reads khaluhum, which is incorrect; the reading we have adopted is the correct one. — Bashār
(11) The biography of al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī under the year 600 AH was provided earlier in the previous volume of Wafayāt al-Aʿyān.