Muhyi al-Din Ibn Fadlan

Muhyi al-Din Ibn Fadlan, Shafi'i chief qadi and professor at the Mustansiriyya, studied fiqh under his father the great scholar Abu'l-Qasim and excelled in the madhhab, usul, khilaf and dialectic. He held the judgeship in al-Nasir's last days; when al-Zahir succeeded he dismissed him after two months. He travelled to Khurasan, debated its scholars, and held the Nizamiyya professorship at Baghdad, then the chief judgeship, then was dismissed again. When the Mustansiriyya's construction was completed in Rajab 631 he lectured there — its first professor — and was famed for fine disputation, gracious and generous and noble. ¹