, Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. T̲h̲ābit b. Aḥmad b. Mahdī al-S̲h̲āfiʿī , known as al-K̲h̲aṭīb al-Bag̲h̲dādī , was born on 24th D̲j̲umadā II 392/10th May 1002 ( Taʾrīk̲h̲ Bag̲h̲dād , xi, 266) in Hanīḳiyā, a village in the neighbourhood of the Nahr al-Malik below Bag̲h̲dād (Ṣafadī, Wāfī , vii, 191; see M. Streck, Die alte Landschaft Babylonien , Leiden 1900, i, 27). According to Ibn al-Nad̲j̲d̲j̲ār (see Y. al-ʿIs̲h̲s̲h̲, al-K̲h̲aṭīb al-Bag̲h̲dādī, Damascus 1364/1945, 17) he was born in G̲h̲uzayya, a hamlet about half-way between Kūfa and Mecca. The son of the preacher ( k̲h̲aṭīb [q.v.]) of Darzīd̲j̲ān, a large village on the west bank of the Tigris below Bag̲h̲dād, he began his studies very early with his father and other s̲h̲ayk̲h̲s (Taʾrīk̲h̲ Bag̲h̲dād, xiv, 75-6; iv, 393; i, 351-2). Proceeding from the Ḳurʾān he occupied himself primarily with ḥadīt̲h̲ , a science which remained all his life the centre of his interest, even when he extended his learned studies to other branches of science, above all to fiḳh , and also after he had become famous as preacher far beyond the walls of Bag̲h̲dād. At the age of twenty, in the year in which he lost his father (ibid., xi, 359), he set out for Baṣra in search of ḥadīt̲h̲, on which occasions he seems to have stayed also in Kūfa. Three years later, in 415/1024 (Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ , i, 246), he set out on a second journey which brought him to the north and east as far as Nīs̲h̲āpūr. On the way, either on the outward or the return journey, he collected further ḥadīt̲h̲ material in Rayy and Iṣfahān, whither his teacher from Bag̲h̲dād al-Barḳānī (Taʾrīk̲h̲ Bag̲h̲dād, iv, 373-6) had given him a letter of introduction to Abū Nuʿaym [q.v.] (preserved in Ibn ʿAsākir, al-Taʾrīk̲h̲ al-kabīr , Damascus 1329/1922, i, 400; Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ, i, 258 f.; cf. al-D̲h̲ahabī, Ḥuffāz , iii, 276; 21093), as well as in Hamadān and Dīnawar. How long he remained en route is not known in detail; according to his own testimony (Taʾrīk̲h̲ Bag̲h̲dād, iv, 374) he was back in Bag̲h̲dād in 419/1028. In the following years his preaching secured him great fame and he became an authority in ḥadīt̲h̲ because of his profound erudition in this field. One of his biographers (al-D̲h̲ahabī, Ḥuffāẓ , iii, 317; 21141) says that preachers and teachers of tradition usually had to submit the traditions they had collected to his expert opinion before quoting them in their sermons and lectures. On the other hand, al-K̲h̲aṭīb seems to have suffered from the hostility of the Ḥanbalīs, who were numerous and powerful in Bag̲h̲dād at this period. After having been at first a Ḥanbalī himself like his father, his preference for the S̲h̲āfiʿī school—probably definite after a journey to Nahrawān in 430/1038-9 (Taʾrīk̲h̲ Bag̲h̲dād, xiii, 157)—and his theological opinions, which were quite uncompromising in their As̲h̲ʿarism, attracted to him the hatred of Imām Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal’s pupils who were enemies of all bold theological speculation. In spite of the Ḥanbalī opposition and thanks to the protection of Caliph al-Ḳāʾim and the vizier Ibn al-Muslima [qq.v.], he succeeded in opening a course of lectures on ḥadīt̲h̲ in the al-Manṣūr mosque (Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ i„ 246 f.). Retaining a bitter resentment at the enmity shown to him, al-K̲h̲aṭīb seems never to have lost an opportunity in his lectures and writings of making malicious insinuations against Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal and the Ḥanbalīs and of even attacking them openly (cf. al-ʿIs̲h̲s̲h̲, op. cit., 210-17). On that account, later generations accused him of taʿaṣṣub (legal and theological bias) (Ibn al-Ḏj̲awzī, al-Muntaẓam , Hyderabad 1359/1940, viii, 267 f.) and there is a body of polemical literature against him (al-ʿIs̲h̲s̲h̲, op. cit., 229-45). Apparently al-K̲h̲aṭīb entered upon these direct relations with the court only after his pilgrimage in 445/1053-4 (Ibn ʿAsākir, op. cit., i, 398), which directed him on the outward journey to Syria (Taʾrīk̲h̲ Bag̲h̲dād, ii, 361) and, after a rather long sojourn in Mecca (ibid., vi, 174; viii, 29), on the return journey in 446/1054-5 via Jerusalem (ibid., vi, 316) and several Syrian towns. When the successful rebellion of al-Basāsīrī [q.v.] brought about the fall of Ibn Muslima, al-K̲h̲aṭīb fled in 451/1059 (ibid., ix, 403) to Damascus. During eight years the highly esteemed al-K̲h̲aṭīb was intensively lecturing, above all in the Umayyad mosque (Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ, i, 254 f.; al-ʿIs̲h̲s̲h̲, op. cit., 92-119). His teaching activities brought him occasionally also to other Syrian towns like Ṣūr (Tyre), known to him from earlier journeys (R. Sellheim, Arabische Handschriften , Materialien zur arabischen Literaturgeschichte , Wiesbaden 1974, i, 69-73, no. 20). A personal mishap enraged suddenly the S̲h̲īʿī circles in Damascus against him. Arrested by order of the Fāṭimid governor, he had a narrow escape from execution only through the intercession of a distinguished S̲h̲īʿī personality and by a precipitous flight to Ṣūr. Returning to Bag̲h̲dād via Ṭarābulus (Tripoli) and Aleppo after the Sald̲j̲ūḳs had restored order there, al-K̲h̲aṭīb, the “Ḥāfiẓ of the east”, died in Bag̲h̲dād on Monday 7 D̲h̲u ’l-Hid̲j̲d̲j̲a 463/5 September 1071 (Ibn ʿAsākir, op. cit., i, 401), in the same year as Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr [q.v.], the “Ḥāfiẓ of the west”. In the presence of a great crowd he was buried beside the tomb of the venerated Bis̲h̲r al-Ḥāfī [q.v.].