this matter; the judge (1) summoned him, a long discussion ensued, and the affair was concluded when Shaykh Shams al-Dīn Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah openly aligned himself with the majority view (2).

2 – The second proof is what the author records in the book itself (p. 284). After discussing the question of the muḥallil in races, setting out the evidences of both camps, and then listing several grounds that invalidate the reasoning of those who insist on a muḥallil as a condition for staking the prize, he writes:

“Reflect, O fair-minded one, upon these schools of thought and these lines of argument, so that you may perceive the weakness of someone who has merely swept together a few scraps of knowledge to no avail, quenched his thirst from no real spring, rejected every view but the one he imitates without knowledge, reproached those who adopt it, issued fatwas based on it, and championed it—as though his own school, and the statement of the authority he follows, were the standard for the entire ummah, indeed the standard for the Book and the Sunnah….”

When this explicit passage is added to the one cited earlier, the conclusion becomes evident: he composed the work in 746 AH or very shortly thereafter. Allah knows best.