ABSTRACT
The majority of sources on the life of Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Karīm Ahmad al-Shahrastānī,1 amongst them the Wafayāt al-a'yan of Ibn Khallikān, quote earlier sources that are no longer extant, particularly the Kitāb al-Dhail and al-Tahbīr of al-Hāfiz Abu Sa'id b. al-Sam'āni, a contemporary of Shahrastāni. The sources all agree that Shahrastāni was born at Shahrastān, a city in the Persian province of Khurāsān, where also he died; but there is no general agreement about the date of his birth. Ibn Khallikān says that according to his own notes on Shahrastānī he was born in AH 469 (AD 1076) and died in AH 548 (AD 1153). He adds, however, that Ibn al-Sam'ānī says that Shahrastānī hīmself when asked told him that he was born in AH 479 (AD 1086).2
