Abū al-Baqāʾ al-ʿUkbarī, Muḥibb al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd Allāh (538–616/1143–1219), was a grammarian and Ḥanbalī jurist. His family came from ʿUkbarā, a small town near Baghdad (see Yāqūt, 3/705), but he himself was born and raised in Baghdad (Ibn Khallikān, 3/100; al-Dhahabī, al-Mukhtaṣar, 214; al-Qifṭī, 2/116). He is also known as al-Azajī (al-Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī, 17/139) because of his connection with Bāb al-Azaj, a quarter in Baghdad (see al-Samʿānī, 1/119).

Although he lost his eyesight after contracting smallpox in …