ibn ʿĪsā ibn Abī al-Rijāl Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Isḥāq ibn Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq. This, Shaykh Quṭb al-Dīn al-Yūnīnī (1) relates, he copied from the handwriting of his elder brother Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAlī, who added that their father had told him, “We are descended from Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq.” He remarked that his father had revealed this only at the moment of death so that his son would refrain from accepting charity (2).

Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī al-Ḥusayn al-Yūnīnī, the Hanbalī, Taqī al-Dīn—the jurist, ḥadīth-master, gifted scholar, devout worshipper, and ascetic (3)—was born in 572 AH. He heard ḥadīth from al-Khushūʿī (4), Ḥanbal (5), al-Kindī (6) and the ḥadīth-master ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī (7), who spoke highly of him. He studied law under Shaykh al-Muwaffaq (8) and kept close company with Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh al-Yūnīnī (9), benefiting greatly from him. Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh, in turn, praised him, preferred him, and would follow his legal opinions. He donned the khirqa from his teacher’s shaykh, ʿAbd Allāh al-Baṭāʾiḥī. He excelled in ḥadīth, memorised the compendium that reconciles the two Ṣaḥīḥs arranged by the letters fāʾ and wāw, and memorised (10) a substantial portion of the Musnad of Imām Aḥmad. Competent in Arabic, which he learned (11) from al-Tāj al-Kindī, he also wrote an elegant, handsome script. People benefited from his many fields of learning and took from him excellent chains of transmission (12). He enjoyed great esteem with the kings.

On one occasion he performed ablution in the Citadel in the presence of King al-Ashraf (13) while al-Bukhārī was being read to al-Zubaydī. When he finished, the Sultan shook out his takhfīfah (14), spread it on the ground (15) for him to tread upon, and swore (16) that it was pure and that he must place both feet on it—so he did (17).