al-Hasan ibn Zarqawayh related from Abū Alī al-Tūmārī, who said:

“During Ramadan, I used to carry the lantern ahead of Abū Bakr ibn Mujāhid as he went to the mosque for the Tarāwīh prayer. One night during the last ten nights, he left his home and passed by his mosque without entering it. I was accompanying him, and he continued until he reached the far end of Sūq al-Atash. There he stopped at the entrance to Muhammad ibn Jarīr’s mosque while Muhammad was reciting Surah al-Rahmān. He listened to his recitation for a long while and then departed.

“I said to him, ‘Master, you have left the people waiting for you and come here to listen to this man recite!’

“He replied, ‘Abū Alī, never mind that. I never imagined that Allah Most High had created a human being capable of reciting so beautifully.’ (1).

It is related that the caliph al-Muktafī said to al-Hasan ibn al-Abbās:

“I wish to establish a religious endowment whose validity all the scholars will affirm and which will be free of disagreement.”

He was told, “No one but Muhammad ibn Jarīr is capable of bringing together what is required for this.” He therefore asked him to do so, and Muhammad put it in writing. The caliph then summoned him and said:

“State what you require.”

“I require nothing,” he replied.

The caliph said, “You must ask me for something.”

He replied, “I ask the Commander of the Faithful to order the police to prevent beggars from entering the enclosed prayer area on Fridays.” The caliph issued the order, and Muhammad’s esteem rose greatly in their eyes (2).

Alī ibn Ubayd Allah ibn Abd al-Ghaffār, the linguist, related that Muhammad ibn Jarīr spent forty years writing forty folios every day (3).

Hārūn ibn Abd al-Azīz said:

Abū Ja‘far said, “When I entered Egypt, every scholar there came to meet me and tested me in the field in which he was proficient. One day, a man came and questioned me about a matter of prosody, although I had never previously applied myself to it. I told him, ‘I have given my word not to speak