3 – al-ʿAwrīs (1), who (2) bore the title Nāṣir al-Dīwān and, in addition, held the office of judge.
4 – Shubriyā (3), who (4) was the confidential secretary (kātib al-sirr).
5 – ʿAbd al-Ṣamad (5) al-Qashsha (6), the clerk; he was one of the Egyptian emirs.
6 – Najāḥ al-Ḥammāmī (7).
7 – A Christian astrologer (8) of Armenian origin, who had assured them that the enterprise would succeed through the science of the stars.
8 – ʿUmārah al-Yamanī, the poet; he (9) was a consummate, eloquent, and fluent versifier whose equal in this art was hard to find. He left behind a well-known dīwān of poetry. I have mentioned him in Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyyah because he (10) adhered to the Shāfiʿī school. He also authored a treatise (11) on the laws of inheritance, a Book of the Fatimid Viziers, and another volume in which he compiled the Life of Nafīsah (12), whom the common people of Egypt venerate.
He was a cultured, distinguished man of letters, a jurist, and an eloquent speaker; yet he was known for his allegiance to the Fatimids, for whom—and for their viziers and princes—he composed a very large number of panegyrics. The least that was alleged against him was that he espoused rafḍ (13), while in secret he was accused of outright unbelief (14).
(1) Edition of Sana’ al-Barq al-Shami (vol. 1, p. 149): reads al-ʿUwayris, and in copy A: al-ʿUruws. The report also appears in al-Rawdatan (1/220), al-Kawakib al-Durriyah (p. 226), and Tarikh al-Islam (12/236).
(2) Edition: “wa huwa Nazir” (“and it is Nazir”).
(3) In al-Rawdatan (1/220): Shabrama.
(4) Found only in the edition.
(5) al-Rawdatan (1/220), al-Kawakib al-Durriyah (p. 226), and Sana’ al-Barq al-Shami (1/149).
(6) Not in the edition.
(7) al-Rawdatan (1/220) and al-Kawakib al-Durriyah (p. 226).
(8) al-Rawdatan (1/220) and al-Kawakib al-Durriyah (p. 226).
(9) Edition: “wa kana ʿImarah shaʿiran” (“and ʿImarah was a poet”).
(10) Copy A reads “fa kana yastaʿmilu al-madhhab” (“he adhered to the school”); Copy B reads “faʾinnahu kana yashtaghalu” (“for he was engaged”).
(11) Edition: “muṣannaf” (“compiled”).
(12) She is Sayyida Nafisa bint al-Hasan b. Zayd b. al-Hasan b. ʿAli b. Abu Talib, may Allah be pleased with them all. Born in 145 AH in Mecca and raised in Medina, she later moved to Cairo, where she died in 208 AH. She is the patron of the famous shrine in Egypt, which Egyptians venerate greatly, as Ibn Khallikan notes. She performed thirty pilgrimages, memorized the Quran, and taught Imam al-Shafiʿi, may Allah be pleased with him. See Wafayat al-Aʿyan (vol. 5, pp. 423–424), al-ʿIbar (vol. 1, p. 355), al-Nujum (vol. 2, p. 185), al-Shudhurat (vol. 2, p. 21), and al-Aʿlam (vol. 9, p. 17).
(13) Copy A: “wa aqall ma nasiba” (“and the least that can be attributed”).
(14) Edition: “wa qad ittiḥima bi-zandaqa wa-l-kufr” (“and he was accused of zandaqa (heresy) and kufr (disbelief)”).