Abū al-Ḥajjāj [Yūsuf ibn Dūnās] (1) al-Findalāwī (2), the leading Mālikī scholar in Damascus, was killed on Saturday, the sixth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, near al-Rabwa in the district of al-Nayrab. He and Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥalḥūlī (3), one of the ascetics, were slain together. May Allah, Exalted be He, have mercy on them both—āmīn (4).
[Then the year 544 AH began]
Among its events:
The passing of Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ ibn ʿAmrūn (5) ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ ibn Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ al-Yahṣubī, the judge of Sabta.
He was one of the senior Mālikī scholars and the author of many well-known and beneficial works (6), among them: al-Shifāʾ (7), the Commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (8), and Mashāriq al-Anwār (9), in addition to other writings (10). Gifted with fine poetry, he was an authority in numerous fields—jurisprudence, linguistics, ḥadīth, literature, and history. Born in 466 AH, he died on a Friday in Jumādā al-Ākhira—though some say in Ramaḍān—of this same year, in the city of Sabta. May Allah have mercy on him.
That same year King Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Zankī, ruler of Aleppo, marched against the lands of the Franks and slew a great multitude of them […].
(1) Printed by Abu al-Hajjaj Yusuf ibn Darbas.
(2) His biography is found in: Mu‘jam al-Buldan (Fendlau), Mirat al-Zaman (vol. 8, p. 200), al-Lubab (vol. 2, p. 442), al-Rawdatayn (vol. 1, p. 53), Wafayat al-Ayan (vol. 2, p. 452), Tadhkirat al-Huffaz (vol. 2, p. 1297), al-Ibar (vol. 4, p. 120), Mirat al-Jinan (vol. 3, p. 280) and al-Nujum (vol. 5, p. 282).
(3) Tarikh Dimashq by Ibn al-Qalanisi (p. 464) and al-Rawdatayn (vol. 1, p. 53).
(4) The phrase al-tarhum (invoking mercy) is absent in manuscript B.
(5) The same reading appears in ms. B, in al-Qadi Iyad’s biography of his son Muhammad, and in al-Dibaj al-Madhhab (vol. 2, p. 46). In edition A it reads ‘Umar; in edition T, ‘Amr. The same occurs in the biographical sources and in al-Dhahabi’s autograph of Tarikh al-Islam (vol. 11, p. 860) and Siyar A‘lam al-Nubala’ (vol. 20, p. 213).
(6) Absent in T.
(7) Its title is al-Shifa bi-Ta‘rif Huquq al-Mustafa (The Shifa in Defining the Rights of the Chosen One).
(8) Titled al-Ikmal fi Sharh Kitab Muslim (Completion of the Commentary on Muslim’s Book), to which al-Maziri appended al-Mu‘allim fi Sharh Muslim (The Instructor in the Commentary on Muslim).
(9) Titled Mashariq al-Anwar ‘ala Sahih al-Athar (The Rising Lights on the Authentic Traditions), a highly useful work explaining the rare terms of hadiths in the three Sahih collections—al-Muwatta’, al-Bukhari and Muslim (see Wafayat al-Ayan).
(10) He also wrote: Tartib al-Madarik wa-Taqrib al-Masalik fi Dhikr Fuqaha Madhhab Malik; al-‘Aqidah; Sharh Hadith Umm Zura‘; and Jami‘ al-Tawarikh.