Muhibb al-Din Ibn Nasr Allah al-Hanbali

The chief judge Muhibb al-Din Ibn Nasr Allah al-Baghdadi, then al-Misri, a Hanbali, Shaykh al-Islam, leading scholar, shaykh of the school and mufti of Egypt. He was born in Baghdad on the morning of Saturday, the seventeenth of Rajab 765 AH. He heard there from his father, from Najm al-Din Abu Bakr ibn Qasim and from Nur al-Din ʿAli ibn Ahmad al-Maqri. He devoted himself to hadith, then came to Cairo with his father and studied with shaykhs including Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini, Zayn al-Din al-ʿIraqi and Ibn al-Mulaqqin. He studied with Shaykh Zayn al-Din Ibn Rajab in Syria and heard in Aleppo from al-Shihab Ibn al-Murahhal. He was appointed teacher at the Zahiriyya Barquqiyya and other places, deputised in judicial matters for Ibn al-Mughli and Nafidh, issued legal opinions, and people benefited from him. He was deeply versed in the religious sciences, including exegesis, hadith, jurisprudence and the principles of law. Burhan al-Din Ibn Muflih said in his biographical dictionary, "He is one of our finest shaykhs." After the death of his successor, ʿAla al-Din Ibn al-Mughli, he came to lead the Hanbalis. He wrote much on the commentary of Muslim, good glosses on "al-Muharrar" and on "al-Furuʿ," and his book on legal opinions was regarded as definitive. He issued a legal opinion on the validity of a khul' divorce as a legal device, and that a divorce pronounced under oath did not take effect in the case of final separation. He had a handsome appearance and dignity, but he did not look at things with one of his eyes. He held the judgeship of Egypt alone for some time.

He died in Cairo on the morning of Wednesday, the middle of Jumada II 844 AH, at the age of 170 years, ten months and two days less. His son Yusuf succeeded him as teacher at al-Mansuriyya and al-Ashrafiyya ¹.