in al-Fandalaawī’s study circle, where the jurist Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Muslim was present. Someone threw a stone at them, but the assailant could not be identified.
Al-Fandalaawī prayed, “O Allah, cut off his hand.”
Not long thereafter a man named Khudayr was seized in the Ḥanbalī gathering. A large collection of stolen keys was found in his chest, and Shams al-Mulūk ordered that both of his hands be amputated. He died from the operation.
Al-Fandalaawī and the Damascene ascetic ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥulḥūlī (1) were killed on Saturday, in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the year 543 AH, at al-Nayrab (2) during the Franks’ siege of Damascus (3). Al-Fandalaawī was buried outside Bāb al-Ṣaghīr, while al-Ḥulḥūlī was buried on the mountain—may Allah have mercy on them both.
134 – al-Arrajānī, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn *
The unparalleled imām, the foremost poet of his era, and the judge of Tustar (4): Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn
(1) The sources already cited for his biography and for the explanation of his nisba are mentioned at the end of the notes to entry (115). In Ibn Kathir’s al-Bidaya, 12/225, the name is mis-read as “al-Jaljuli” (with two j’s).
(2) al-Nayrab is a locality adjoining al-Rabwa on the Damascus side; the word is Syriac for “valley,” but here it designates the lower slope of Mount Qasyun facing al-Rabwa. See Muhammad Dahman, Fi Rihab Dimashq, pp. 27–29.
(3) For details, see Mirat al-Zaman, 8/121; Muʿjam al-Buldan, 4/277–278; and al-Bidaya, 12/224. Al-Fandalawi also wrote a brief epistle, edited and printed by Jawad al-Marabit under the title Fatwa al-Fandalawi, which highlights the higher aims of religion and reminds readers of certain legal rulings and moral counsels.
(*) Principal biographical references: al-Ansab, 1/174; al-Muntazam, 10/139–140; Muʿjam al-Buldan, 1/144; al-Kamil, 11/147; Wafayat al-Aʿyan, 1/151–155; al-Mukhtasar, 2/49; Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 4/1306; Duwal al-Islam, 2/60; al-Ibar, 4/121; Tammat al-Mukhtasar, 2/77–78; al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat, 7/373–378; Mirat al-Jinan, 3/281; al-Bidaya, 12/226–227; Tabaqat al-Subki, 6/52–57; Tabaqat al-Isnawi, 1/110–112; al-Nujum al-Zahira, 5/285; Maahid al-Tansees, 3/41–46; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 4/137; Brockelmann, Geschichte, 5/33–34 (Arabic ed.).
(4) A well-known city in Khuzestan; see Muʿjam al-Buldan, 2/29, and Wafayat al-Aʿyan, 1/155.