which had formerly rebelled against his father (1). Yet before long their whims scattered them, and the whole house perished after Sultan Yaʿqūb—may Allah have mercy on him (2).
[In this same year] (3) a foreigner in Damascus claimed to be Jesus, son of Mary. The amir Ṣārim al-Dīn Buzghash, deputy governor of the Citadel, ordered that he be crucified beside the Ḥammām al-ʿImād al-Kātib, outside Bāb al-Faraj, opposite the mill situated between the two gates—an establishment that had already vanished long ago. Two days after his crucifixion (4) the populace rose against the Rāfiḍīs (Shiʿites); they went to the grave of one of them at Bāb al-Ṣaghīr, a man named Wuthāb, dug him up, and crucified him together with two dogs. This took place in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir of that very year (6).
In the same year a great strife broke out in Khurāsān. Its cause was that Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Rāzī, the foremost mutakallim of his age, journeyed to Sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn al-Ghūrī, ruler of Ghazna. The sultan honored him, showed him every respect, and even built a madrasa for him in Herat. Most of the Ghūrīs, however, were Karrāmīs (followers of Ibn Karrām); they therefore loathed Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī and wanted to separate him from the sultan (7). They assembled against him a body of Ḥanafī and Karrāmī jurists together with a crowd of Shāfiʿīs. Ibn al-Qudwa attended as well—an eminent shaykh held in high esteem—who followed the doctrine of Ibn Karrām and Ibn al-Hayṣam. He and Fakhr al-Dīn debated, but the discussion degenerated into mutual insults and abuse.
The next morning the people gathered in the congregational mosque. A preacher stood up and said in his sermon: “O people, we speak only what has come down to us with sound chains from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. As for the science of Aristotle, the unbelief (8) of Ibn Sīnā, and the philosophy of al-Fārābī (9), we neither know it nor profess it. Our sole authorities are the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger. Why, then, was a shaykh of Islam insulted yesterday as he defended the religion of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger, while a mutakallim who has no proof for what he says held the floor?”
The congregation wept and cried out; the Karrāmīs wept too, aided in their outcry by certain others among the notables (10). They reported the entire affair to the sultan, who ordered Fakhr al-Dīn to be expelled from the city—though he did so unwillingly (11). Accordingly, Fakhr al-Dīn returned to Herat.