Biographical Overview
**Biography of the Author**
**Name:**
Maḥmūd b. Abī al-Qāsim Isfandiyār b. Badrān b. Ayyān.
*Ayyān* – with a *fatḥah* on the *hamzah* and a *shaddah* on the *yāʾ* with two dots below – as stated by al-Dimyāṭī, and by al-Dhahabī in *al-Mushtabih* within the biographical notice of his nephew, and by Ibn Nāṣir in *al-Tawḍīḥ* within his biographical notice.
**Kunyah (Agnomen):**
Abū Muḥammad.
**Laqab (Epithet):**
*Al-Dashtī*: Dashtā is a village in Iṣbahān – with a *fatḥah* on the unpointed *dāl* and a *sukūn* on the pointed *shīn* – *al-Iṣbahānī*.
In *Muʿjam al-Buldān* (2/456): "Al-Dasht: ... a small town in the midst of the mountains between Irbil and Tabrīz; I saw it inhabited and abundant in goodness, its inhabitants are all Kurds." End quote.
*Al-Irbilī*, as stated by al-Dhahabī.
Irbil – with a *kasrah*, then a *sukūn*, then a *kasrah* – is located at a distance of seven miles from Baghdad for caravans, and it is part of the province of Mosul.
*Al-Ānimī*, as stated by the copyist of his book *Ithbāt al-Ḥadd*, and by al-Dimyāṭī; this is also found in the biographical notice of his nephew.
*Al-Ḥalabī*, *al-Kurdī*, *al-Ḥanbalī*; all of these are among the epithets of his nephew.
*Al-Miṣrī* – due to his passing in Egypt.
**Distinguishing Between Him and His Nephew:**
His nephew is: Aḥmad b. Muḥammad, Abū Bakr al-Dashtī, the shaykh of al-Dhahabī.
**Birth:**
Around the year six hundred (600 AH), for he exceeded sixty years of age, and he died in the year 665 AH.
**His Teachers:**
Al-Dhahabī said: "He heard a great deal [of Hadith]."
Among them are:
1- Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad b. al-Azhar al-Ṣurayfīnī.
2- Ismāʿīl b. Aḥmad al-ʿIrāqī, Abū al-Faḍl.
3- Jaʿfar b. ʿAlī b. Hibat Allāh al-Hamadānī al-Mālikī (d. 636 AH).
4- Sulaymān b. Ibrāhīm b. Hibat Allāh al-Isʿirdī, Abū al-Rabīʿ.
5- ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Ḥusayn b. Rawāḥah, Abū al-Qāsim al-Shāfiʿī (d. 646 AH).
6- ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad - Ibn Abī ʿUmar Ibn Qudāmah al-Khaṭīb, Abū Ibrāhīm. (*Muʿjam al-Dimyāṭī*).
7- ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Maqdisī.
8- ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn b. al-Muqayyar, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ḥanbalī (d. 643 AH).
9- Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq b. Khalaf b. ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Dimashqī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh.
10- Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Maqdisī al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Ḥāfiẓ, Abū ʿAbd Allāh.
11- Yaʿīsh b. ʿAlī b. Yaʿīsh al-Mawṣilī, Abū al-Baqāʾ (d. 643 AH).
12- Yūsuf b. Khalīl al-Ḥāfiẓ, Abū al-Ḥajjāj al-Dimashqī (d. 648 AH).
**His Students:**
1- His nephew Aḥmad b. Muḥammad Abū Bakr. (His uncle cared for him and had him hear a great deal [of Hadith] – as stated by al-Dhahabī in the biographical notice of Aḥmad from his *Muʿjam*, although he named him Aḥmad b. Abī al-Qāsim! It occurred in the edition of *al-Tabṣīr* that he is the son of his sister, which is a scribal error [*taṣḥīf*]).
2- ʿAbd al-Muʾmin b. Khalaf al-Dimyāṭī in his *Muʿjam*.
3- Abū ʿAbd Allāh ... Ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Rūmī al-Zajjāj (who read the book *al-Ḥadd* to him).
**His Scholarly Works:**
He has commentaries and authored works (as stated by al-Dhahabī in *al-Taʾrīkh*). Among them are:
1- *Kitāb Ithbāt al-Ḥadd* (The Book of Affirming the Limit).
2- A book on the transmission routes of the Hadith of the *Aṭīṭ* (Creaking). He said in his book *Ithbāt al-Ḥadd* after the Hadith of the *Aṭīṭ*: ("I shall indeed present it, by the will of Allah the Exalted, in a book other than this one, with its transmission routes and chains of narration, along with the statements of the Imams regarding the trustworthiness of its transmitters and the authenticity of its narrators, in a manner that leaves no way to repel or reject it except through obstinacy, and no criticism of its authenticity except through arrogance.") However, the copyist marked it with a sign of omission/doubt (*ḍabbaba ʿalayhā*).
And al-Dashtī mentioned something similar to this statement regarding Ibn al-Zāghūnī.
3- A book on *al-Nahy ʿan al-Raqṣ wa-al-Samāʿ* (The Prohibition of Dancing and Audition). In it, he narrated from al-Ḍiyāʾ – as stated by Ibn Nāṣir. He authored it in the year 654 AH, and it is a manuscript in the Egyptian National Library (Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah) (393) consisting of about ninety folios, and it has been published in two volumes as a university thesis (1428 AH) by Dār al-Sunnah for Publishing.
It is strange that the editor attributed al-Dashtī, may Allah have mercy upon him, to the Ḥanafīs! The falsehood of this is not hidden, as the author in this book of his frequently quoted from the Imams of the Ḥanbalīs, while he did not quote from any of the Imams of the Ḥanafīs, nor did he even mention them originally in this book of his. Thus, it is impossible to attribute him to them, especially since the statements of the Ḥanafīs in the chapters of the Sunnah and creed are scarce, and the majority of those among them who spoke in these chapters followed the methodology of the Ashʿarīs, Kullābīs, and Māturīdīs.
4- *Juzʾ fī al-Amr bi-Ikhfāʾ al-Dhikr* (A Tract on the Command to Conceal the Remembrance of Allah). (As stated by Ibn Nāṣir).
5- He mentioned in his book *al-Nahy ʿan al-Raqṣ wa-al-Samāʿ* that he sent a missive to the Judge of Ḥamāh in refutation of the Sufis regarding their usage of the Hadith of ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, as evidence for the permissibility of singing.
**Statements of the Scholars Regarding Him:**
The copyist of his book *Ithbāt al-Ḥadd* said:
("We were informed by the Shaykh, the Imam, the Scholar, the *Ḥāfiẓ*, the *Muftī*, the Clarifier of Problematics, the Matchless of His Age, the Master of the *Ḥuffāẓ*, the One Supported by the Religion of Allah, the Caller to Allah, the Sword of the Sunnah and the Muslims, the Subduer of Innovators, the Victor of the Religion: Abū Muḥammad, Maḥmūd b. Abī al-Qāsim b. Badrān b. Ayyān al-Ānimī al-Dashtī.")
Al-Dimyāṭī mentioned him in his *Muʿjam Shuyūkhihi*, saying: ("The ascetic [*al-Zāhid*].")
Jamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf b. Taghrī Bardī said of him: ("The Shaykh, the Righteous, the Follower of the Traditions [*al-Atharī*]; he was a virtuous Hadith scholar [*muḥaddith*].")
Al-Dhahabī said in *al-Taʾrīkh*: ("The Shaykh, the Righteous, the Ascetic, the Scholar. He heard a great deal [of Hadith], and copied parts [*ajzāʾ*]... He was content, abstemious, and patient with poverty, and he would not accept anything from anyone.
He fasted frequently; when he broke his fast, he would restrict himself to fourteen morsels, or thereabouts, and this is narrated from ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him.
He constantly commanded good and forbade evil:
1- He once entered upon the Sultan [who was called]: al-Nāṣir, and censured the Sultan for some of his faults. The Sultan punched him, and he was expelled. The Sultan then regretted it and sent for him, seeking his favor. He replied: 'I would love to enter upon him and address him with what I addressed him previously, so that he may repeat it and strike me!'
2- He censured al-Bādarāʾī for standing during the supplication for the Caliph at Dār al-Saʿādah!
3- He used to censure the grand emirs and would speak harshly to them in assemblies.
He, may Allah have mercy upon him, was a caller to the Sunnah, avoiding innovation:
1- He would go to great lengths in refuting the deniers of the informatory attributes (*al-ṣifāt al-khabariyyah*), and would subject them to insult and charges of innovation, while they would accuse him of anthropomorphism (*tajsīm*), though he was innocent of that, may Allah have mercy upon him.")
Al-Dhahabī said here: ("However, he was deficient in virtue, falling short of silencing the opponents.")
Some scholars have said: Perhaps he means by "deficient in virtue" a deficiency in worldly ranks regarding positions and status, and this is something that only increases his honor and virtue!
As for "falling short of silencing the opponents," this is from al-Dhahabī, not from al-Dashtī: for he [al-Dhahabī] had described him as being among the scholars!
His book *Ithbāt al-Ḥadd* indicates the strength of his argumentation; however, the people of the Sunnah are not people of scholastic theology (*kalām*), argumentation, and disputes; rather, they are people of the Sunnah, transmitted traditions (*athar*), and following.
As Imam Aḥmad, may Allah have mercy upon him, said: "Burghūth [one of the Jahmīs] began to say on that day: 'The body,' and so forth, and speech that I did not understand. So I said: 'I do not know, and I do not know what this is, except that I know He is One, Self-Sufficient Master (*Ṣamad*), having no likeness and no equivalent, and He is exactly as He has described Himself.' At that, he would remain silent before me." [*Al-Ibānah al-Kubrā* (2489), with my editing].
2- He was beaten by Luʾluʾ, the viceroy of the Sultanate in Aleppo, because he read the virtues of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, and intended to have him hear it on Friday. This viceroy harbored Shiite inclinations (*yatashayyaʿ*), and for this reason, he beat him!
**Death:**
He died, may Allah have mercy upon him: on Monday at the setting of the sun, on the twenty-first of Rajab in the year six hundred and sixty-five (665 AH), in the Great Khān of Masrūr in Cairo. He was buried at the foot of Mount Muqaṭṭam adjacent to the mausoleum (*turbah*) of al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī. He had exceeded sixty years of age – as stated by al-Dimyāṭī, and similarly by al-Dhahabī.
**Biographical Sources:**
*Muʿjam al-Shuyūkh* by al-Dimyāṭī.
Historical chronicles: *Taʾrīkh* by al-Dhahabī (661 - 670, pp. 206 - 207),
*al-Ishārah ilā Wafayāt al-Aʿyān* by al-Dhahabī (361),
*Taʾrīkh Miṣr* known as *al-Nujūm al-Zāhirah* (7/323),
*al-Dalīl al-Shāfī* by Ibn Taghrī Bardī (2/723).
*al-Muqtafā* by al-Birzālī, *al-Mushtabih* by al-Dhahabī (1/4).
*al-Tawḍīḥ* by Ibn Nāṣir (1/124).
*al-Tabṣīr* (1/4).
*Ḥāshiyat al-Dhayl ʿalā Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah* (4/90), (684).
Linguistic dictionaries: *Tāj al-ʿArūs* (under *dasht* and *ayn*) (4/520).
*al-Ansāb* (5/353), and *Muʿjam al-Buldān* (2/456).
And the biographical notice of his nephew.