I was born in 557 [1162 [C.E.] in a house that belonged to my grandfather on Falūdhaj Lane, and was raised and instructed under the care of Shaykh Abū al-Najīb. I knew neither pleasure nor leisure, and spent most of my time learning ḥadīth. Certificates of ḥadīth audition were obtained for me from professors in Baghdad, Khurasan, Syria, and Egypt. One day my father [proudly] declared: “I have given you the opportunity to learn ḥadīth directly from the top scholars of Baghdad and I have even had you included in the chains of transmission of the older Masters.” I was learning calligraphic writing at that time and also memorizing the Qur’ān, the Faṣīḥ [a treatise on Arabic linguistics by Tha‘lab, d. 904], the Maqāmāt [picaresque tales by al-Ḥarīrī, d. 1122], the collected poems of al-Mutanabbī, an epitome on jurisprudence, another on grammar, and other works of this kind.

When I was old enough, my father took me to Kamāl al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Anbārī, who was, in those days, the Master of Masters in Baghdad. He was an old classmate of my father's from their days at the Niִzāmiyya law college, where they had studied law together. It was under his direction that I was to study the introduction to the Faṣīḥ, but I couldn't understand one bit of his continuous and considerable jabbering, even though his students seem pleased enough with it. So he said, “I avoid teaching younger boys and instead pass them on to my protégé al-Wajīh al-Wāsiṭī to study under his direction. If and when their situation improves, I then allow them to study with me.”

Al-Wajīh, a blind man from a wealthy and virtuous family, was employed by some of the children of the Chief Master.^[3] He welcomed me with open arms and taught me all day long, showing me kindness in many ways. I attended his study circle at the Ẓafariyya mosque, and he would teach me the commentaries and discuss them with me. Then he would read my lesson and favor me with his own comments. We would then leave the mosque and he would even help me memorize on the road home. When we reached his house, he would take out the books he himself was studying and I would memorize with him and help him memorize as well. We would then go to Kamāl al-Dīn, to whom he would recite and who would then comment on the lesson, while I listened. I trained in this way until I surpassed al-Wajīh in both memorization and comprehension, for I used to spend most of the night memorizing and reviewing. We continued in this way for a long time, with me affiliated to both the Master and the Master's Master. My memorizing got better, my recall improved, my understanding grew, my insights became more acute, and my mind became keener and more reliable.

The first thing I memorized was the Luma‘ [a grammar by Ibn Jinnī, d. 1002], which I completed in eight months. I listened to a commentary on most of it, read by another, every day, and returned home to peruse the commentaries of al-Thamānīnī, al-Sharīf ‘Umar ibn Ḥamza, Ibn Barhān, and any others I could find. I explained the Luma‘ to those pupils who preferred my instruction till I reached the point where I began to use up a whole notebook on each chapter without even completing a fraction of what I had to say.