to attend. The messenger was dispatched to him on six(1) separate occasions with the same request, yet he remained steadfast in his refusal to appear; the session therefore dragged on, and they finally dispersed without having achieved anything(2).
On the twenty-eighth of Dhu al-Hijjah in the year 706 AH(3), the Deputy of the Sultanate in Damascus announced that he had received a letter from Shaykh Taqi al-Din, sent from al-Jubb. He informed several of those in his gathering, praised the Shaykh, and exclaimed, “I have never seen anyone like him, nor anyone braver!”
He went on to describe the Shaykh’s state in prison: his single-minded turning to Allah, his refusal to accept any royal clothing or state stipend, and his determination to remain unsullied by such things.
During that same month of Dhu al-Hijjah, on Thursday the twenty-seventh, the Shaykh’s two brothers—Sharaf al-Din(4) and Zayn al-Din—were summoned from prison(5) to the council of the Deputy of the Sultan, Salar. The Maliki chief judge, Zayn al-Din Ibn Makhluf, was also in attendance. A lengthy exchange took place, and the brothers were returned to their cell after Shaykh Sharaf al-Din debated the Maliki judge(6) and prevailed over him with transmitted evidence.