BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR

Name:

Mahmoud ibn Abi al-Qasim Isfandiyar ibn Badran ibn Ayyan.

• In the edition of Al-Tawdih, the word [Abi] was omitted before al-Qasim, and the name was not mentioned, resulting in the kunya being treated as the name!

Ayyan—with a fatha on the hamza and a shadda on the ya’ (the letter with two dots below)—as stated by al-Dimyati and al-Dhahabi in Al-Mushtabih in the biography of his nephew, and by Ibn Nasir in Al-Tawdih in his [the author's] biography.

The doubled ya’ may be mistranscribed as a ba’ (the letter with one dot below), as occurred in the published edition of Al-Mu’jam al-Kabir by al-Dhahabi in the biography of his nephew.

Kunya:

Abu Muhammad. I have not encountered any mention of his children.

Title (Laqab):

Al-Dashti: Dashti is a village in Isfahan—spelled with a fatha on the unpointed dal and a sukun on the pointed shin—hence, al-Asbahani.

In Mu’jam al-Buldan (2/456): "Al-Dasht: ... a small town in the midst of the mountains..."