ابن المنى

Nasih al-Islam Abu'l-Fath Nasr ibn Fatyan al-Nahrawani of Baghdad, the Hanbali — jurist of Iraq and shaykh of the Hanbalis absolutely; he studied fiqh under Abu Bakr al-Dinawari and transmitted from Ibn al-Zaghuni and his generation — pious, ascetic and devout on the way of the early Muslims: he never married, never kept a concubine, never rode mule or horse, owned no property, wore no fine clothes, and most of his food was bean-water in a cup. ²

Ibn Rajab said of him: he spent his whole life's ambition on fiqh — principles and branches, madhhab and disagreement and debate — travellers came to him from the lands and the Hanbali jurists of every land refer to him; Shaykh Muwaffaq al-Din was his student and Ibn Taymiyya the student of his student Abu Bakr ibn al-Hallawi. Stricken with dysentery, he died on Saturday 4 Ramadan and was buried Sunday; the crowds pressed so hard that troops and Turks with arms were sent out fearing disorder — he was eighty-two and left no equal. ²