He is mentioned by al-ʿImād in al-Kharīda (1) and by Ibn Khallikān in Wafayāt al-Aʿyān (2); the latter commended him and cited some of his verses, composed about a shaykh who kept a zāwiya and about one of that shaykh’s followers, a man called Makki:
[metre: al-mutaqārab] (3)
O say to Makki, in the words of a sincere adviser (4)—for true counsel deserves to be heard:
Since when have people ever been taught in their religion (5)
that singing is a sunnah to be pursued?
That a man may eat like a camel, then dance in the gathering until he falls?
Had his belly been empty and starving,
he would never have whirled about in rapture or lent an ear.
They claim, “We are drunk on the love of God,”
when nothing has intoxicated the crowd but the platters of food.
So it is with donkeys when fodder is plentiful: (6)
well-watered and gorged, they become frenzied.
You see them tossing their beards whenever their leader chants innovations (7);
this one screams, that one wails—yet were Sūrat Yā-Sīn recited (8), their hearts would not break.
Tāj al-Umānāʾ (9) Abū al-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ʿAsākir came from a household devoted to ḥadīth transmission. He was the eldest of his two brothers, Zayn al-Umānāʾ (10) and al-Fakhr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (11). He studied (12)
al-Muhmalah (written with a doubled lām; after the mīm comes a yā’ with a tashdīd below it, followed by a hā’): it is a small settlement in the environs of Mosul on the eastern bank of the Tigris, eight farsakhs from al-Manhadr on the road to Baghdad, overlooking the riverbank. Ibn Khallikān comments: “The old Salāmiya, of which al-Ẓahīr was the qāḍī, fell into ruin. A new village was then founded nearby and likewise called Salāmiya.” See Muʻjam al-Buldān (3/234) and Wafayāt al-A‘yān (1/37).
(1) In the edition: al-Jarīdah.
(2) In Wafayāt al-A‘yān (1/37).
(3) The first six lines in Wafayāt al-A‘yān (1/38) are introduced as follows: “In al-Bawāzīj—a small village near Salāmiya—there was a zawiya for a group of fuqarā’ led by their shaykh Makkī, who composed among them:”
(4) In manuscripts A and B and in Wafayāt al-A‘yān it reads an-naṣūḥ. According to the lexicon, naṣūḥah, naṣāḥah and naṣāḥīyah denote sincere advice; one who gives advice is nāṣiḥ or naṣīḥ (pl. nuṣṣāḥ and naṣāḥ); and al-tawbah al-naṣūḥ (sincere repentance).
(5) In manuscripts A and B the conjunction anna is supplied.
(6) In Wafayāt al-A‘yān it reads yanqizhahā.
(7) Neither this verse nor the following one appears in Wafayāt al-A‘yān.
(8) In the edition it reads wa-yabis law tallayyan; this suits neither sense nor meter.
(9) The biography of al-Tāj al-Amānā’ Ibn ‘Asākir is found in: al-Takmila li-Wafayāt al-Naqqālah (2/304), Dhayl al-Rawḍatayn (p. 86), Tārīkh al-Islām (13/230), Siyar A‘lām al-Nubalā’ (22/26), al-‘Ibar (5/33), al-Nujūm al-Zāhirah (6/210) and Shadhārāt al-Dhahab (7/75).
(10) In the edition it reads: “his brothers, Zayn al-Fakhr and al-Amānā’.”
(11) The biography of Zayn al-Amānā’ will appear in Wafayāt al-A‘yān under 627 AH.
(12) The biography of al-Fakhr Ibn ‘Asākir will appear in Wafayāt al-A‘yān under 620 AH.