A number of the scholars of his age praised him, his knowledge, and his virtues—among them Qadi al-Khuʾi (1), Ibn Daqiq al-ʿId, Ibn al-Nahhas, the Hanafi chief judge of Egypt Ibn al-Hariri, Ibn al-Zamlakani, and others. I found in Ibn al-Zamlakani’s own handwriting the statement: “All the prerequisites of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) were perfectly fulfilled in him, and he possessed unrivalled mastery in fine composition, polished diction, orderly arrangement, systematic division, and lucid exposition (2).” He also wrote on one of the shaykh’s works these verses:

What can the describers ever say of him,
when his qualities surpass all reckoning?
He is an overwhelming proof of God,
a marvel of the age among us.
He is a manifest sign in creation,
whose radiance outshines the dawn (3).

Such was the tribute paid to him when he was about thirty years old. Affection and companionship had existed between him and me since childhood, and we listened to hadith and pursued knowledge together for nearly fifty (4) years. His merits are many, and the titles of his writings, the details of his life, what transpired between him and the jurists and the authorities, the several times he was imprisoned, and his various circumstances cannot all be recorded in (5) this place.

When he died I was away from Damascus on the road to the Hijaz. News of his death did not reach us until more than fifty days later, when we arrived in Tabuk, and we were grieved at his loss—may Allah have mercy on him. These are his exact words at this point in his “History.”

After presenting this biography, Shaykh ʿAlam al-Din mentioned the funeral of Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud and its greatness, and the famous funeral of Imam Ahmad in Baghdad. Imam Abu ʿUthman al-Sabuni said: “I heard Abu ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Suyufi say: ‘I attended the funeral of Abu al-Fath al-Qawwas the ascetic together with Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Daraqutni. When that immense crowd came into view he turned to us (6) and said: I heard Abu Sahl ibn Ziyad al-Qattan say: I heard ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal say: I heard my father say: “Say to the people of innovation: the test between us and you is [what happens at] funerals.”’”

He continued: “There is no doubt that the funeral of Ahmad ibn Hanbal was awe-inspiring and immense, owing to the large population of his city, their gathering for the occasion, their veneration of him, and the fact that the authorities loved him. Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—died in the city of Damascus, whose inhabitants did not amount to even a tenth (7) of those of Baghdad at that time; yet they gathered for his funeral in such numbers that, had a mighty sovereign mustered them and a vast administrative corps surrounded them, they would not have equalled the multitude that actually converged for his funeral and brought the crowd to what it was.”