across most of the inhabited world, and it was rare to find a celebrated site without his name carved upon it.
He was born in Mosul but eventually settled in Aleppo, where he founded a ribat. He collected writings, useful notes, and curiosities. An indiscriminate gatherer, he dabbled in magic and talismanic arts, and he won the favour of al-Ẓāhir, the ruler of Aleppo, who built him a madrasa. There he taught and served as Friday-preacher in the outskirts of the city. He was an eccentric conjurer, yet delightful company.
Ibn Khallikān said (1): “He nearly circled the entire earth in his wanderings—by land and sea, across plain and mountain—until he became proverbial.” Hence Ibn Shams al-Khilāfah, speaking of someone, recited (2):
“The pages of his fabrication (3) lie in every youth’s abode,
Their meanings agreed, though their metres shift and erode;
He has covered the earth from lowland to mountain high—
As though tracing the route of that itinerant Harawī.”
Ibn Wāṣil observed (4): “He knew every manner of trick and sleight-of-hand. He composed sermons and presented them to al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh, who thereupon appointed him to the office of ḥisbah throughout the provinces. Owing to that decree he enjoyed prestige with the caliph, though he never actually discharged those duties.”
I (the compiler) say: He heard from ʿAbd al-Munʿim ibn al-Farāwī his collection of Sabāʿiyyāt. I have examined his book on the shrines and visitation sites he personally witnessed (5). He even ventured to the Franks’ islands and was nearly taken captive.
His grave lies beneath a dome in his madrasa on the outskirts of Aleppo. He died in Ramadan 611 AH, already an old man.