There was none, in the days (1) of ʿAmr, his equal;
nor, in a later age (2), al-Kindī’s peer.
So the two of them (3) are Zayd and ʿAmr indeed—
for the whole of grammar was built on Zayd and ʿAmr.
Abū Shāmah said: “This is just what Ibn al-Dahhān, cited under the year 592 AH, expressed when he recited—in the basīṭ metre—
O Zayd, may my Lord enlarge for you His gifts,
blessings so vast that hope itself cannot grasp them.
Of all mankind you are the one most entitled to grammar;
is it not your very name that serves there as the paradigm?
Al-Sakhāwī also praised him in an elegant poem (4). Likewise, more than one scholar spoke well of him—among them Abū al-Muẓaffar Sibt Ibn al-Jawzī (5), who said:
“I studied with him. He held sound beliefs and possessed an agreeable nature; no one ever wearied of his company. He delighted in remarkable anecdotes, wrote a fine hand, and composed polished verse. He left behind a large dīwān of poetry.”
He passed away on Monday, the sixth of Shawwāl of this year (6), at the age of ninety-three years, one month, and sixteen (7) days. The funeral prayer was performed for him in the Great Mosque of Damascus; he was then carried to al-Ṣāliḥiyyah and buried there—may Allah have mercy upon him.
He had endowed priceless books (8)—seven hundred and sixty-one volumes—to his freedman Najīb al-Dīn (9) Yāqūt, then to his son after him, and thereafter to the scholars of hadith, jurisprudence, language, and other sciences. The collection was placed in a large chest in the maqṣūra of Ibn Sinān (10) al-Ḥalabiyyah (11), adjacent to the shrine of ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn. In time the books were dispersed; many were sold (12), and only a few worn volumes now remain in the library mentioned, located in the maqṣūra of al-Ḥalabiyyah, formerly called the maqṣūra of Ibn Sinān.
Shaykh Tāj al-Dīn—may Allah show him mercy—left considerable bounty, great wealth, and several handsome Turkish mamluks. He was gentle-mannered and of good character, treating his students with courtesy, even standing to honour them (13). When old age prevented him from rising, he composed—by way of apology (14)—[in the ṭawīl metre]: