By Comparison...

I should note that virtually all modern historians are more comprehensible than the medieval Kufan scholar Abu Abdullah Sayf b. Umar al-Usayyidi al-Tamimi. I tried to read a passage from him yesterday that was completely opaque; Gautier Juynboll's introduction to the translation indicated I should not feel alone in this sentiment. I'm rapidly developing other reasons to dislike him, too. More on that later, perhaps.