ration at a circumstance so extraordinary, and fully appreciating his pupil's great abilities, he treated him with marked honour and said: "It is not necessary "that you should attend my lectures; all you have to do is to read my works.' Abû 'l-Kâsim then continued his studies at home, and having acquired a complete acquaintance with the systems of doctrine peculiar to the two professors, Ibn Furak and Ibn Ishak, he perused the books composed by the kadi Abû Bakr al-Bâkillâni (3). During this time he regularly followed the sittings held by ad-Dakkâk and obtained from him his daughter in marriage, although she had many relations entitled to her hand. On the death of his father-in-law, he advanced in the career of Sûfism by devoting his efforts to the attainment of spiritual perfection, and to the deliverance of his heart from the consciousness of individuality (4). About this time he began to compose his works, and before the year 410 (A. D. 1019) he finished his great commentary on the Koran, entitled at-Taisir fi Ilm it-Tafsir (the science of the koranic exegesis made easy), which is one of the best works on the subject (5); another of his productions is a treatise on the Men of the Path (see vol. I. p. 259). In making the pilgrimage to Mekka, he met in the caravan, with the shaikh Abû Muhammad al-Juwaini, the father of the Imam al-Haramain (vol. II. p.27), Ahmad Ibn al-Husain al-Baihaki (vol. I. p. 57), and a number of other eminent men, from whom he learned the Traditions both at Baghdad and in the province of Hijâz. He was an expert horseman and well skilled in the use of arms. By the excellence of his sermons and exhortations, he held the first rank as a preacher, and in the year 437 (A.D. 1045-6) he opened a class wherein he taught the Traditions. Abû 'l-Hasan Ali 'l-Bâkharzi mentions him with high commendation in the Dumyat al-Kasr, and says that had he struck a rock with the whip (6) of his admonition, it would have melted; and if Satan had attended at his exhortations, he would have been converted to God. The Khatib (vol. I. page 75) speaks of him in these terms in his History of Baghdad: “He came to us (at Baghdad) in the year 448 and taught the Tra"ditions, which we wrote down under his dictation. As a traditionist he was a "trustworthy authority. He used also to relate anecdotes (7); he preached with great elegance and his arguments were most powerful (8). In dogmatic "theology he followed the principles of al-Ashari, and in the developments of "the law he held the doctrines of the Shafites." Abd al-Ghâfir al-Farisi notices him also in his History, and it is related by Abû Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn al

VOL. II.

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Fadl al-Farawi (9), that he heard Abd al-Karim al-Kushairi recite the following verses of his own composing:

God's blessing on the hour in which we were alone and when I saw your face! A smile then mantled on the mouth of love, in the garden of familiarity. We passed a time of pleasure for our eyes, but the next morning their lids were moist with tears.

It is mentioned by the shaikh Abû 'l-Fath Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ali al-Farawi the preacher, that Abû 'l-Kasim al-Kushairi frequently recited these verses, composed by one of the brethren:

Had you been with us at the moment of our separation and witnessed our repeated adieus, you would have learned that there is a discourse in tears, and that tears are a part of discourse.

These lines are by Zû 'l-Karnain Ibn Hamdan, of whom we have already spoken (vol. I. page 514).- Abd al-Karim al-Kushairi was born in the month of the first Rabi, A. H. 376 (July-August, A. D. 986); he died at Naisapûr on the morning of Sunday, the 16th of the latter Rabi, A. H. 465 (December, A. D. 1072), before the hour of sunrise. He was buried in the Madrasa, at the foot of the grave in which his master Abû Ali 'd-Dakkâk was interred.—I met in his work entitled ar-Risâla (10) with two verses which pleased me so much, that I am induced to give them here:

Some may taste of consolation after having long suffered the pains of love; but in my passion for Laila, I shall never taste of consolation. And yet all that I ever obtained from her intercourse were hopes never fulfilled and transitory as the flash (11) of the thunder-cloud.

His son Abû Nasr Abd ar-Rahim was an eminent imâm and resembled his father in the sciences which he cultivated and in holding, like him, assemblies at which he preached. He afterwards followed with great assiduity the lessons of the Imam al-Haramain, till he acquired a perfect knowledge of that jurisconsult's manner of treating the Shafite doctrines and discussing controverted points. He then set out to make the pilgrimage, and, on arriving at Baghdad, he held 418 regular assemblies, at which he gave exhortations with a most impressive effect. The shaikh Abû Ishak as-Shîrâzi attended at these assemblies, and the learned men of Baghdad unanimously agreed that they had never heard a preacher like him. He pronounced his admonitory discourses in the Nizamiya College and in

the monastery of the chief of the Sûfis (shaikh as-Shuyûkh); but his zealous attachment for the doctrines of al-Ashari led him into a controversy with the Hanbalites on points of faith. This caused a riot, in which a number of lives were lost on both sides, and one of Nizam al-Mulk's sons was obliged to ride out and allay the tumult. When intelligence of this event reached Nizâm al-Mulk, who was then in Ispahân, he sent for Abû Nasr, and having shown him every mark of respect, he gave him an escort of honour to Naisapûr. On arriving there, Abû Nasr resumed his lessons and exhortations, and continued to fill that duty till nearly the last moment of his life. About a month before he died, he was struck with a weakness in his limbs, and he expired at Naisapûr, on the forenoon of Friday, the 28th of the latter Jumâda, A. H. 514 (Sept., A. D. 1120.) He was interred in the funeral chapel which is called the Kushairite Mausoleum.— He knew by heart a great number of poetical pieces and anecdotes, and the following lines, which I met in some composition or other, and afterwards in as-Samâni's work, the Zail, were composed by himself :

My heart abandons me to serve you, and time endeavours (, but in vain, to make me forget) you. Fate decided that we should separate, and what can control its decrees? God alone knoweth the depth of my affliction when obliged now to quit you for ever!

The shaikh Abû Ali 'd-Dakkâk died A. H. 412 (A. D. 1021).—Kushairi means descended from Kushair Ibn Kaab,the progenitor of a great (Arabian) tribe.—Ustuwa near Naisapûr, is a district covered with villages, which has produced a number of learned men.

(1) Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Bakr-not Ibn Abi Bakr as in most of the MSS.- surnamed at-Tûsi anNaukâni, a doctor of the sect of as-Shâft, studied jurisprudence in Naisapûr under al-Mâsarjisi. He was pious, learned, modest, and indifferent to worldly honours. He died at Naukân, A. H. 420 (A. D. 1029). — (Tab. as-Shaf.)-Tùs, a city in Khorâsân, was composed of two towns, Tâbârân and Naukân.

(2) His life will be found in this volume.

(3) The life of this doctor will be found farther on.

(4) I have here paraphrased the technical expressions mujahida (effort) and tajrid (the stripping off). According to the Sufis, the union of the soul with divinity is not possible till the creature has lost the consciousness of his own individuality.

(5) In the life of his grandson Abd al-Ghâfir al-Fârisi, another commentary of his on the Koran is noticed by Ibn Khallikân.

(6) The autograph has by.

. وكان يقص وكان ثقة The autograph has (7)

(8) Literally: His demonstration was fine.

(9) His life will be found in this volume.

(10) This Risala is a celebrated epistle or treatise on Sufism.

(11) Here again all the manuscripts except the autograph are wrong.

كخطفة The right reading is

66

ABU SAAD AS-SAMANI.

The hafiz Abu Saad Abd al-Karim as-Samàni, surnamed Taj al-Islàm (the crown of Islamism), was a doctor of the sect of as-Shafi and a native of Marw. He belonged by birth to the tribe of Tamim and his genealogy (though incomplete) is as follows: Abd al-Karim Ibn Abi Bakr Muhammad Ibn Abi 'l-Muzaffar alMansûr Ibn Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Jabbar Ibn Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Jaafar Ibn Ahmad Ibn Abd al-Jabbar Ibn al-Fadl Ibn ar-Rabi Ibn Muslim Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Abd al-Mujîb at-Tamimi.-The shaikh Izz ad-dîn Ali Ibn alAthir (1) speaks of him in these terms, towards the commencement of his Mukhtasir (or abridgment of as-Samâni's work, the Ansåb): "Abû Saad was the middle "pearl of the collar of the Samani family; their vigilant eye and their helping "hand; when he became the head of the family, he rendered its influence complete. To acquire knowledge and learn the Traditions, he journeyed to the "East and to the West, to the North and to the South. He travelled to Trans"oxiana and visited repeatedly all the cities of Khorasan; he went also to Ku"mas, Rai, Ispahân, Hamadan, the two Iraks, Hijaz, Mosul, Mesopotamia, Syria, and other places too numerous to be mentioned and too difficult to be "enumerated; he there met the men of learning, received from them informa"tion, frequented their society, obtained Traditions from them, and took for "model their virtuous deeds and praiseworthy conduct. The number of his "teachers surpassed four thousand."— During one of his dictations, or extempore lectures (2), he related as follows: "Abû Muhammad Abd Allah Ibn "Muhammad Ibn Ghâlib al-Jili, a jurisconsult who had settled at al-Anbàr, "recited to me these lines on bidding me adieu :

When we went forth to bid them adieu, they wept pearls (tears) and we wept rubies 419 (blood). They handed round to us the cups of separation, and it will be long before 'we recover from the effects of that draught. They departed, and I sent after them a 'torrent of my tears; on which they exclaimed: "We shall be drowned!" and I cried out: "I shall be burned (with grief)!"'

He composed some most instructive and excellent works, such as the Supplement, in fifteen volumes, to the Khatib's History of Baghdad; the History of the city of Marw, forming upwards of twenty volumes; the Ansâb (explanation of patronymics and other relative adjectives), in eight volumes. This last is the work which Izz ad-din Ibn al-Athir corrected and reduced to three volumes; the abridgment is in every person's hands, but the original is very scarce.-Abû Saad as-Samâni says in the biographical notice which he gives of his father: “In "the year 497 (A. D. 1103-4) my parent made the pilgrimage, and, on his "return to Baghdad, he learned Traditions from a number of teachers. He "then gave public exhortations in the Nizâmiya College, instructed pupils in the "Traditions (3) and collected books. When some time had thus elapsed, he "travelled to Ispahân and received oral information from a great many persons; "he then returned to Khorâsân and continued to reside at Marw till the year 509, when he went to Naisàpûr. He took me and my brother with him, "and we learned Traditions from Abu Bakr Abd al-Ghaffar Ibn Muhammad as"Shiruwi (4) and other masters. He subsequently returned to Marw, where he "was overtaken by death at the early age of forty-three years (5)."- Abû Saad was born at Marw on Monday, the 21st of Shâbân, A. H. 506 (February, A. D. 1113), and he died in the same city, on the night preceding the first day of the first month of Rabi, A. H. 562 (December, A. D. 1116). His father Muhammad was an imâm (6), a man of talent, a skilful investigator of the truth, a traditionist, a doctor of the sect of as-Shâfi, and a hâfiz. His Imla (dictation) is a work of an entirely original cast, containing observations on the texts and isnâds (7) (of the Traditions) with elucidations to clear up the doubtful points. He wrote many other works besides, and composed some pretty poetry, which he destroyed (8) a little before his death. He was born in the month of the first Jumada, A. H. 466 (January, A. D. 1074), and he died at the end of public prayers, on Friday, the 2nd of Safar, A. H. 510 (June, A. D. 1116). The next day, Saturday, he was interred near the grave of his father, Abû 'lMuzaffar, in the Safhawan, which is one of the cemeteries at Marw.-Abû Saad's