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(2) This office appears to have been the same as that of grand kâdi (Kâdi 'l-Kuddt), but with this additional privilege that the person who filled it possessed uncontrolled executive power as redresser of grievances. (See vol. I. p. 346.)

(3) This name is written in the autograph. It is so incorrectly transcribed in all the other MSS., that I was unable to fix its true orthography.

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(4) The autograph contains the following marginal note: "The sultan Salah ad-din entrusted him with the kadiship of [all] Egypt, after he had acted as kadi of al-Gharbiya, one of the provinces in that country. "This nomination took place on the 22nd of the latter Jumâda, A. H. 566; some say 565." This passage is to be found in some of the other MSS., but the date which they give is 586, which I knew, from Ibn Hujr's Kddis of Egypt, to be false. This led me to suppress the passage in the Arabic text, but it shall be given in the appendix.

(5) The Muraj of Mosul, called also Marj Abi Obaida, lies to the east of the city. It is a low ground, surrounded by hills and covered with meadows and villages.-(Marasid.)

TAKI AD-DIN IBN AS-SALAH.

Abu Amr Othman Ibn Abd ar-Rahmân Ibn Othmân Ibn Musa Ibn Abi 'nNasr an-Nasri al-Kurdi as-Shahrozûri (a descendant of Abû Nasr the Kurd and a native of Shahrozûr) was a jurisconsult of the sect of as-Shafi. He bore the surname of Taki ad-din (pious in religion) and was generally known by the name of Ibn as-Salâh as-Sharakhani. This doctor was one of the most eminent men of his time by his deep acquaintance with the sciences of Koranic interpretation, Traditions, jurisprudence, names of men (or biography of Traditionists), and every branch of knowledge connected with the Traditions and with the oral transmission of philological learning. He possessed also a considerable degree of information in many other departments of science. His fatwas, or legal opinions, were considered of great validity, and he was one of the masters from whose tuition I derived great profit. He made his first studies in jurisprudence under his father as-Salah (1), who was one of the most distinguished shaikhs among the Kurds; he was then taken by his parent to Mosul, where he studied for some time, and I have been told that he had repeatedly gone over the whole of (Abû Ishûk as-Shîrâzi's) Muhaddab with his masters, before his mustaches were grown. He was then employed at Mosul as an under-tutor by the learned

shaikh Imad ad-din Abu Hamid Ibn Yunus. After a short stay in that city, he 454 travelled to Khorasan, where he remained for some time, occupied in acquiring a knowledge of the Traditions extant in that country; he then returned to Syria and was appointed professor in the Nasiriya College at Jerusalem, founded by al-Mâlik an-Nasir Salâh ad-din. During his residence in that city he successfully directed numerous pupils in their studies, and he afterwards removed to Damascus, where he obtained the professorship in the college, called the Rawâhiya after its founder az-Zaki Abû 'l-Kâsim Hibat Allah Ibn Abd al-Wâhid Ibn Rawâha al-Hamawi (native of Hamât), the same person who founded the Rawâhiya College at Aleppo. When the Dar al-Hadith (or school for teaching the Traditions) was erected at Damascus by al-Malik al-Ashraf, the son of al-Malik al-Aadil Ibn Aiyub, he was nominated to that professorship and taught the Traditions to numbers of pupils; he subsequently became professor in the Madrasa Sitt as-Sham, a college within the city walls, founded by Sitt as-Sham Zaman Khâtûn, the daughter of Aiyub and the uterine sister of Shams ad-Dawlat Tûràn Shah. It lies to the south of (the hospital founded by Nûr ad-din and named after him) al-Bimâristàn an-Nûri. Sitt as-Shàm erected also the college outside Damascus which contains her tomb, the tomb of her brother, and that of her husband Nasir ad-din, the son of Asàd ad-din Shirkûh, and sovereign of Emessa (2) Ibn as-Salah held simultaneously those three places and filled with strict punctuality his duties in each, never interrupting the regular course of his lectures unless forced to do so by unavoidable circumstances; he was (indeed) firmly grounded in learning and piety. I went to him in the beginning of the month of Shawwal, A. H. 632 (end of June, A. D. 1235), and resided with him at Damascus for a year, which time I passed in close study. He composed an instructive work on the sciences connected with the Traditions, and another on the rites of the Pilgrimage, in which he treated the subject at length, and inserted many observations useful and requisite to be known. His Ishkâlât is an elucidation of the obscurities in (Abû Hâmid al-Ghazzali's treatise on jurisprudence, the Wasit, and his fatwas also have been collected by one of his pupils and form a volume. He continued till the last to lead a righteous life, passed in piety, application to study and assiduity in teaching. His death took place at Damascus on Wednesday morning, the 25th of the latter Râbi, A. H. 643 (September, A. D. 1245); on the afternoon of the same day, the funeral service was said over

him, and he was interred in the cemetery of the Sufis, outside the gate of Nasr. He was born A. H. 577 (A. D. 1181-2) at Sarakhân.- His father as-Salah died at Aleppo on the eve of Thursday, the 27th of Zû 'l-Kaada, A. H. 618 (Jan. A. D. 1222), and was buried at a place called al-Jebul (3), outside the gate of Arbaîn (4), in the tomb of the shaikh Ali Ibn Muhammad al-Farisi (5). His birth is placed by approximation in the year 539 (A. D. 1144), as he did not himself know the exact date. He held the professorship in the Asadiya College, founded at Aleppo by Asad ad-din Shirkûh; before his nomination he had studied at Baghdad, and taken lessons from Sharaf ad-din Ibn Abi Usrûn (page 32). -Sharakhan is a village in the province of Arbela, near Shahrozûr.— Az-Zaki Ibn Rawaha died at Damascus on Tuesday, the 7th of Rajab, A. H. 622 (July, A.D. 1225), and was buried in the cemetery of the Sûfis. It is stated by Shihab ad-din Abd ar-Rahmân Abû Shàma (6), in his Annals, that Ibn Rawaha died A. H. 623.— Sitt as-Shâm, the daughter of Aiyûb, died on Friday, the 16th of Zü'l-Kaada, A. H. 646 (January, A. D. 1220).

(1) From this it appears that his father Abd ar-Rahmân bore the title of Salâh ad-din. (2) See vol. I. pages 285 and 267.

It is true

(3) I have printed this name , but the autograph has, , an unpronounceable word. that the whole of this passage is in the margin of the autograph and not in the author's handwriting; it must have been inserted however with his authorisation. There exists a village called al-Jebbül J at the distance of eighteen or twenty miles from Aleppo, but it lies to the south-east of the city, whereas the gate of Arbâin is on the north side of it.

(4) In the Arabic text I have printed al-Arbain on the authority of some of my MSS. and on that of Russel. See History of Aleppo, vol. I. p. 13, note.

(5) In the autograph this name is so indistinctly written, that it may be read al-Fâsi_~¿3).

(6) The shaikh and imâm Abû 'l-Kâsim Abd ar-Rahman Ibn Ismail Ibn Ibrahîm Ibn Othmân, surnamed Shihab ad-din (flambeau of religion), was a jurisconsult, a grammarian, a teacher of the readings of the Koran, an historian, and a traditionist. He was generally known by the name of Abû Shâma because he had a large mole on the left temple. He was born at Damascus in one of the months of Rabî, A. H. 599 (end of A.D. 1202); before attaining the age of ten years he had mastered all the Koran, and at the age of sixteen he had acquired a perfect acquaintance with the art of koran-reading, under as-Sakhâwi (see his life in this volume). One of his masters was Ibn as-Salah. Ad-Dahabi says that he wrote a great deal on different branches of science, and that he possessed great abilities as a doctor, a professor, and a mufti. He died at Damascus in the month of Ramadan, A. H. 665 (June, A. D. 1267). His principal works are a commentary on the Shatibiya (see the life of Ibn Firro in this volume); two abridgments of the history of Damascus, the first in fifteen volumes, and the second in five; a commentary on as-Sakhàwi's kasidas in honour of the Pro

phet; the Kitab ar-Raudatain or Two Gardens, containing the history of Nûr ad-din and Salâh ad-dîn (a copy of which important work is in the Bib. du Roi); a continuation of the preceding; a treatise on dogmatic theology; an introduction to grammar; a versified edition of az-Zamakhshari's Mufassal, etc. He left many other works, but unfinished.—(Tab. as-Shâfiyîn.)

IBN JINNI.

Abû 'l-Fath Othmân Ibn Jinni, a native of Mosul, was one of the great mas- 455 ters in the science of grammar. He studied the belles-lettres under Abù Ali 'lFarisi (vol. I. p. 379), and, on quitting him, he commenced as teacher in Mosul. His former master, happening to pass through the city, saw him surrounded by pupils at their lessons, on which he said to him: "You are rotten before you "are ripe (1)." On hearing these words he abandoned his class, and hecame the assiduous disciple of Abû Ali till he acquired a perfect knowledge of the science. His father Jinni was a Greek slave belonging to Sulaiman Ibn Fahd Ibn Ahmad al-Azdi, a native of Mosul, and to this circumstance he alludes in the following passage from one of his poems:

Were I sprung from nothing, my learning would be a title of nobility. But I come of princes powerful and noble, Cæsars, whose voice silenced the threats of adversity. For them the Prophet prayed (2), and the prayer of a prophet is glory sufficient.

He composed some fine poetry. The following lines of his indicate that he had only one eye, which is said to have been really the case; but some attribute them to Abu Mansûr ad-Dailami :

Thy rigour towards me who have committed no fault denotes an evil intention. I swear by thy life! that I wept till I felt afraid for my single eye. And yet were it not that I should never see thee again, it would be no advantage for me to preserve my sight.

I saw a kasida of his, in which he laments the death of al-Mutanabbi, and I would give it here were it not so long.-As for Abù Mansûr ad-Dailami, better known as Abû 'l-Hasan Ali Ibn Mansûr, he was the son of a soldier in the service of Saif ad-Dawlat Ibn Hamdân, and was a good but licentious poet. He

also had but one eye, and on this defect he composed some fine verses, such as

these:

O you have no witnesses to prove that you were in love! know that mine are my eyes, with which I wept till one of them was lost. And yet how strange it is, that the eye which I have still remaining, abstains (3).

He made also the following ingeniously turned verse on a handsome boy who had but one eye :

He has one eye which strikes all eyes (with admiration), and another which was struck by (evil) eyes.

:

Ibn Jinni composed a number of instructive works on the science of grammar, namely the Kitâb al-Khasais (on the principles of grammar); the Sirr as-Sanâat (secret of the art); the Munsif (impartial), intended to elucidate Abù Othman alMazini's (vol. I. p. 264) treatise on the declensions and conjugations; the Talkin (instruction); the Taakub (mutual succession); the Kâfi (sufficient), being a commentary on al-Akhfah's treatise on rhyme (vol. I. p. 573); a work on the genders; a treatise on the nouns ending with a short elif and those ending with a long one; the Tamam (completion), being a commentary on the poems of the Hudailites; the Manhaj (highway), treating of the derivation of those proper names which occur in the Hamasa; a concise treatise on prosody; another on rhyme; al-Masail al-Khatiriyât (questions incidentally suggested); at-Tazkira tal-Isbahâniya (memorial of Ispahân); extracts from Abû Ali 'l-Farisi's Tazkira, selected and put in order; the Muktadib (rough draught), treating of the concave verbs; the Luma flashes); the Tanbih (warning); the Muhaddab (regularly drawn up); the Tabsira (elucidation); etc. It is said that the shaikh Abû Ishak as-Shirazi borrowed from him the titles of his own works, for he also composed a Muhaddab and a Tanbîh, but on jurisprudence, and a Luma and a Tabsira on the principles of jurisprudence. Another work of Ibn Jinni's is the Fasr (disclosure) (4), forming a commentary on the Diwân of al-Mutanabbi, which work he had read through under the tuition of the author. In this commentary I read the following passage: "A person once asked al-Mutanabbi why, in his verse, Bâdîn 456“hawâka sabarta am lam tasbird (suffer as you may, with firmness or with impa

"tience, you cannot conceal your love), he wrote the word tasbird

with a

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