ABSTRACT
The surviving works ascribed to Abū Ismāʿīl ʿAbdullāh b. Muḥammad al-Anṣārī (d.481/1089) suggest that he was a Sufi author from Herat, who was also a Hanbalite. His nisba implies that his ancestors may have been amongst the Medinan ‘helpers’ (anṣār) of the Prophet Muḥammad’s early followers, who are said to have accommodated the Meccan migrants. 1
