AL-AALAM ASH-SHANTAMARI.

The grammarian Abû 'l-Hajjâj Yûsuf Ibn Sulaiman Ibn Isa, surnamed al-Aalam (the harelipped) was a native of Shantamariya in the West (1). He travelled to Cordova in the year 433 (A. D. 1041-2) and resided there for some time. Having studied under Abû 'l-Kâsim Ibrahîm Ibn Muhammad Ibn Zakariya al-Iflili, Abû Sahl al-Harrâni and Abu Bakr Muslim Ibn Ahmad an accomplished literary scholar, he became well acquainted with (pure) Arabic, philology and the ideas usually expressed in poetry. He possessed by heart all the passages illustrative of these subjects, to which he had applied with great assiduity. His extensive learning, the retentiveness of his memory and the correctness (of the texts which he dictated) procured him a wide reputation. To his pupils he furnished a great quantity of information, and he was the only teacher of that time whose renown attracted students from distant parts. One of his disciples was Abû Ali al-Husain Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ahmad al-Ghassâni al-Jaiyâni, the same of whom we have spoken. (vol. I. p. 458). Al-Aalam, towards the close of his life, lost his sight. He composed a commentary the Jumal of Abu 'l-Kâsim az-Zajjâji (vol. II. p. 92) and a sepaparate treatise on the verses (given as examples) in that work. A commentary on the poetical works of al-Mutanabbi (vol. I. p. 102) was drawn up by him with the assistance of his master, Ibn al-lflili. He commented also the Hamása (vol. I. p. 348), as far as I can judge; for I once possessed an explanation of that work by one ashShantamari; I do not now recollect the (other) names of the author, but am inclined to think that it was the person of whom we are speaking. It is a very good work, whoever made it. Al-Aalam died at Seville, a city in the Spanish peninsula, A. H. 476 (A. D. 1083-4). He was born in the year 410 (A. D. 1019-20). The following relation was made by Abû 'l-Hasan Shuraih Ibn Muhammad Ibn Shuraih arRoaini, a native of Seville and the preacher in the great mosque of that city : "On Friday, the 15th of Shawwâl, 476 (25th February, A. D. 1084) took place the "death of my father, Abû Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Shuraih. I went to inform "the professor and master Abû 'l-Hajjâj al-Aalam of that event, because they loved "each other as brothers. He wept bitterly on hearing the news, and exclaimed:

"We belong to God and unto him must we return!' He then said: I shall not "survive him more than a month.' And so it happened.—In a document written by the learned and virtuous teacher of Koran-reading, Muhammad Ibn Khair (2), who was a native of Spain, I found the following note: "This Abû 'l-Hajjâj "was surnamed al-Aalam because he was much disfigured by a slit in his upper lip." I may here observe that a man who has that defect in his upper lip is called an aalam, which word is derived from the verb alima, yalamu, alaman. A female with this deformity is designated by the term almá. If the defect be in the lower lip, the adjective is aflah, derived from the verb faliha, yaflahu, falahan. This is conformable to the general rule for all verbs which designate bodily infirmities and defects the second radical letter is followed, in the preterite, by an i and, in the aorist and the noun, by an a. Such are the verbs kharisa, yakhrasu, kharasan (to be dumb), barisa, yabrasu, barasan (to be leprous), ámia, yáma, âman (to be blind). In such verbs, the adjective indicating the person takes (in the masculine) the form afál; so, they say: akhras, aalam, aflah. Abû Yazîd Suhail Ibn Amr al-Aâmiri, a member of the tribe of Kuraish (and a contemporary of Muhammad) had a harelip. When he was made a prisoner at the battle of Badr, Omar Ibn al-Khattâb said to the Apostle of God: "Let me pluck out his fore-teeth so that he may never again stand "forward to make speaches against you." The Prophet replied: " Let him alone; "he may, one day, stand forward in a manner which you will approve of." This Suhail was a good orator, a correct and elegant speaker. It was he who came (from Mekka) to al Hudaibîa for the purpose of concluding a truce, and in that he succeeded. Having subsequently embraced Islamism, he proved a sincere convert. The standing forward, which the Prophet foretold, really occurred: when he gave up his soul to God, many of the Arabs apostatized and violent dissentions arose between them. Suhail, who was then at Mekka, stood forward and addressed the people in a speech which tranquillized them and put an end to their disputes. This was the praiseworthy standing-forth which the Prophet had foreseen. When Omar asked leave to pluck out his fore-teeth in order to prevent him from making speeches, he was aware that persons having a harelip and no front-teeth find great difficulty in pronouncing their words. -Antara Ibn Shaddâd al-Absi, the famous horseman (and the author of one of the Moallakas), had a harelip and was surnamed al-falhá (which is the feminine adjective), but, in his case, the word referred to the noun shafa (lip), which is of the feminine gender. Shantamariya is a city in western Spain. - Al

Hudaibia is a place situated between Mekka and Medîna; it was there that the Prophet received from his followers the oath of satisfaction (bta tar-Ridwán) (2). This name is sometimes pronounced al-Hudaibiya.

(1) There were in Spain two large towns called by the Arabs Shanta-Mariya (Santa-Maria): one of them, situated in the province of Algarve, was designated as the Shanta-Mariya of the West (al-gharb); the other, situated in the kingdom of Aragon' was called the Shanta-Mariya of the Beni Razzin (Albarrasin). (2) This took place in the sixth year of the Hejira.

THE KADI BAHA AD-DIN IBN SHADDAD.

Abû 'l-Mahâsin Yûsuf Ibn Râfî Ibn Tamim Ibn Otba Ibn Muhammad Ibn Attâb al-Asadi, surnamed Bahâ ad-Dîn (lustre of religion), was a legist of the Shâfite sect and kádi of Aleppo. When a child, he lost his father and was brought up in the family of his maternal uncles, the Bani Shaddâd. This Shaddâd was his mother's grand-father. He (Bahd ad-Din) bore at first the prenomen of Abû 'l-Izz, which he afterwards replaced by that of Abû 'l-Mahâsin, as we have indicated above. He was born on the eve of the 10th of Ramadân, 539 (5th March, A. D. 1145) at Mosul, and there, in his youth, he learned by heart the noble Koran. When Abû Bakr Yahya Ibn Saadûn of Cordova, the shaikh of whom we have given a notice (p. 57 of this vol.), went to Mosul, Abû 'l-Mahâsin attended his lectures with great assiduity, read under his direction the seven ways (or editions) of the Koranic text (1) and obtained a solid acquaintance with its various readings. He, himself, says in one of his works: "The first (professor) from whom I took lessons was the háfiz (traditionist) Sâin ad-Dîn Abû Bakr Yahya Ibn Saadûn Ibn Tammâm Ibn Muhammad al“Azdi al-Kortubi; may God have mercy on his soul! 1 studied Koran-reading "under him, without discontinuing, during the space of eleven years. I read over,

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also, under his direction, the greater part of the works which he used to teach and "which treated of the different readings, the manner of reciting the noble Koran, "and the text of the Traditions, with explanations and commentaries of his own.

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"He then drew up for me, with his own hand, a certificate attesting that none of his "scholars had read under his tuition more than I did. I possess also, in his hand

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writing, nearly two quires (forty pages) in which were indicated all that I had read "under him and the matters which he himself had taught orally and which I might "teach on his authority. Amongst the works mentioned in this list are those of al"Bukhâri (vol. I. p. 594) and Muslim (vol. III. p. 348), with the indication of the different channels through which the texts of these works had come down to him. Besides that were mentioned most of the (standard) works on Traditions and philology. The last treatise which he authorised me to teach was his commentary on "the Gharib, composed by Abû Obaid al-Kâsim Ibn Sallâm (vol. II. p. 486). I read "it under his direction during a number of sittings, the last of which took place in the “last third of the month of Shabân, 567 (April, A. D. 1172). "I may here observe that this was the year in which the shaikh of Cordova (Ibn Saadûn) died.—" Another "of my professors, " continues he, "was Abû 'l-Barakat Abd Allah Ibn al-Khidr Ibn al-Husain, generally known by the surname of as-Sîzaji (2). I heard him explain a part of ath-Thalabî's (vol. I. p. 60) commentary (on the Koran), and I received from "him a licence to teach on his authority all that he had taught orally, touching "the various readings. A certificate, drawn up by him to that effect and inscrib"ed by him in the album (or catalogue) containing the list (fihrest) of texts which I "had heard taught, is dated the 5th of the first Jumâda, 566 (14 January, A. D. 1171). This doctor was noted for his learning in the science of Traditions and in "that of jurisprudence. He acted as a kâdi in Basra and taught in the Old Atâbekiya (college)." The writer means the Atâbekiya of Mosul." Another of my "masters was the shaikh Majd ad-Dîn Abû 'l-Fadl Abd Allah Ibn Ahmad Ibn Abd "al-Kâhir at-Tûsi, the preacher of the great mosque in Mosul. He was so highly "renowned as a Traditionist that people came from all countries for the pur

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pose of hearing him. He lived upwards of ninety years."— I may add that Abû 'l-Fadl Ibn at-Tûsi was born on the 15th of Safar, 487 (5th March, A. D. 1094), in the quarter of Baghdad called Bab al-Marâtib and that he died at Mosul on the eve of Tuesday, the 14th of the month of Ramadân, 578 (11th January, A. D. 1183). He was interred in the cemetery contiguous to the gate called Báb al-Maidan (hippodrome-gate). Let us resume Abû 'l-Mahâsin's relation and finish it: — " I "heard from him," meaning the preacher just mentioned," most of the texts "which he had learned from the lips of his masters and, on the 26th of Rajab, 558

(10th june, A. D. 1163), I received from him a licence to teach all that he used "to deliver from memory. Another of my professors was the kôdi Fakhr ad-Dîn "Abû'r-Rida Said Ibn Abd Allah as-Shahrozûri. I heard from his lips the

Masnad (or collection of authenticated traditions made) by as-Shâfî (vol. II. p. 569), " that of Abû Awâna (p. 28 of this vol.), that of Abu Yala 'l-Mausili (vol. I. p. 212) " and the Sunan of Abû Dâwûd (vol. I. p. 589). He gave me a certificate to that "effect and inscribed it in my album. I heard him also recite the text of Abû Isa "at-Tirmidi's Jámi (vol. 11. p. 679), and received from him a licence to teach all "that he himself taught. This document is in his hand-writing and bears the date "of the month of Shawwâl, 567 (may-june, A. D. 1172). Another of my profes"sors was the hafiz Majd ad-Dîn Abû Muhammad Abd Allah Ibn Mohammad Ibn “Ali al-Ashîri as-Sanhâji (3). He gave me licence to teach all the texts which he "had dictated from memory, notwithstanding the great variety of their subjects. I "Lave in my album a certificate to that effect, dated in the month of Ramadân, "559 (July-Aug. A. D. 1164). His own album contains the same document and "is also in my possession." I must here add that Abû Muhammad Abd Allah alAshîri died in Syria, in the month of Shawwâl 561 (August, A. D. 1166), and was interred at Baalbek, outside the Gate of Emessa (Báb Hims), on the northern side of he town. Amongst them also was the háfiz Sirâj ad-Dîn Abû Bakr Muhammad “ Ibn Ali al-Jaiyâni (4). At Mosul I read under his tuition the Sahth of Muslim, "from the beginning to the end, as also the Wasît of al-Wâhidi (vol. II. p. 246). "He authorized me to teach the same texts as he did, and his certificate bears the "date of 559 (A. D. 1163-4). These were the teachers whose names come to my "recollection; there were a number of others whom I heard, but now, that I am "compiling this treatise, I cannot call to mind on whose authority they gave their "lessons. Their names were Shuhda tal-Kâtiba (vol. I. p. 625) at Baghdad, "Abu 'l-Mughîth in al-Harbiya (5), Rida ad-Dîn al-Kazwîni, who professed in the Nizâmiya college, and some others who obtained their information through chan"nels the recollection of which has escaped me. I need not give their names, as "those whom I have mentioned are quite sufficient." End of Abû 'l-Mahâsin's personal statement. - According to another account, he studied under Abù 'l-Barakât Abd Allah Ibn as-Sîzaji, the chief legist of Mosul, and the same of whom mention has been made; he was noted for learning, self-denial and austerity of life. His death occurred at Mosul, in the month of the first Jumâda, 574 (Oct.-Nov. A. D.

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