Abū l-Maḥāsin b. Abū ʿAlī
Description / Bio
The Fustat-based son of Sitt Ghazāl bt. Abū ʿUmar, with whom he corresponded, and an Abū ʿAlī. This Abū ʿAlī is most likely the India trader Abū ʿAlī b. Abū ʿUmar, who referred to Abū l-Maḥāsin as "my son" in IB II, 64. However, given the potential parents' identical patronyms, it is also possible that Sitt Ghazāl and the trader Abū ʿAlī were instead siblings, making the trader Abū ʿAlī the uncle of Abū l-Maḥāsin. It was common among this milieu to refer to a nephew as a son, especially (but perhaps not exclusively) if one did not have a son himself (see Goitein, "Portrait," 450–51).