states, regarding the shaykh’s ordeal over the question of visitation—a trial that occurred shortly before his death: “A number of well-known men in Damascus once convened and consulted about what to do with the shaykh. One of them said, ‘Exile him,’ so the speaker himself was exiled. Another said, ‘Cut out his tongue,’ and the speaker’s own tongue was cut out. Another said, ‘Have him flogged,’ and the speaker was flogged. Another said, ‘Imprison him,’ and the speaker was imprisoned. I was informed of this by someone who attended that consultation and loathed it.” (1)

As for our placing the book’s composition around 740 AH, this is deduced from the note that appears on the recto of the archetype in the hand of Imam Jamal al-Din al-Mizzi (d. 742 AH). It reads: “This is a concise book recounting the condition of Shaykh al-Islam … compiled by the shaykh, the imam, the erudite scholar, the ḥadith-master Shams al-Din Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī ibn Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī—may Allah perpetuate the benefit of his insights.” This shows that the work must have been produced well before al-Mizzi’s death, allowing him time to see the book and inscribe its title.