on the twenty-fifth day of Shaʿbān in the year 520 AH(1). He had mastered the recitation of the Qur’an in its various canonical readings when he was ten years old(2), and he heard a great many hadiths of high isnād from reliable shaykhs. He applied himself diligently, studied Arabic grammar and lexicography, and became famous for that. In 563 AH(3) he travelled to al-Shām, then settled in Egypt(4) where he met al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil. Afterward he moved to Damascus and lived in the quarter of Darb al-ʿAjam(5). Kings, viziers, and amirs held him in high esteem, and scholars—indeed, dignitaries, rulers, and their sons—frequented him. Al-Afdal(6), the son of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn and ruler of Damascus, used to visit him at his home, as did his brother al-Muḥsin(7) and al-Muʿaẓẓam, king of Damascus(8). Al-Muʿaẓẓam would come down to Darb al-ʿAjam to read with him from al-Mufassal by al-Zamakhsharī, and he awarded thirty dinars to anyone who memorised al-Mufassal. All the leading preachers of the congregational mosque attended his sessions in Darb al-ʿAjam—among them Shaykh ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī(9), Yaḥmuru ibn Maʿṭī(10), al-Wajīh the philologist(11), al-Fakhr al-Turkī(12), and others. Al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil in those days praised him profusely.
Al-Sakhāwī said: “He possessed branches of knowledge found with no one else. I studied the Kitāb of Sībawayh with him. It is remarkable that Sībawayh’s given name was ʿAmr, while the name of Shaykh Abū al-Yaman(13) is Zayd. Concerning this I composed the following lines(14) in the raml metre:”
(1) In the printed edition: “He was born in.”
(2) In the printed edition: “and his age was.”
(3) In the printed edition: “Then he entered al-Sham.”
(4) In manuscript B: “He settled.”
(5) In the printed edition: “He settled at Dar al-‘Ajam.” In the addendum to al-Rawdatayn it appears as Darb al-‘Ajamī, and in al-A‘lāq al-Khaṭīrah as Hammām Darb al-‘Ajamī al-Kabīr and Hammām Darb al-‘Ajamī al-Ṣaghīr. Dr. Samī al-Dahhān, may Allah have mercy on him, notes in a margin note that in the marginalia of al-Irbīlī it is located within Jīrūn, known today as al-Nawfara east of the eastern gate of the Umayyad Mosque.
(6) The biography of al-Malik al-Afḍal will appear in the deaths section under the year 622.
(7) Al-Malik al-Muḥsin Ẓuhayr al-Dīn Abū al-‘Abbās Aḥmad ibn Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn died in 633—or, according to some, 634. See Tarwīḥ al-Qulūb (pp. 98–99).
(8) In manuscript B: “and his brother al-Muḥsin likewise, who held the highest authority over the kingdom of al-Sham during his tenure.”
(9) The biography of al-Sakhāwī will appear in the deaths section under the year 643.
(10) The biography of Ibn Ma‘ṭī will appear in the deaths section under the year 629.
(11) The death of the notable linguist has already been recorded above in this year’s death notices.
(12) al-Fakhr al-Turkī was ‘Alī ibn Bukmish ibn Yazāl al-Baghdādī al-Naḥwī, a pupil of Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī. He composed poetry and authored a treatise on ʿarūḍ (Arabic prosody). He died in 626. See al-Takmila li-Wafayāt al-Naqqāla (vol. 3, pp. 248–249), the addendum to al-Rawdatayn (p. 157), and Bughyyat al-Wuʿāt (vol. 2, pp. 151–152).
(13) In the printed edition: “and his name.”
(14) The two verses are found in the addendum to al-Rawdatayn (p. 95).