In this year: a tremendous earthquake began in the lands of Syria and spread to al-Jazīrah, the territories of the Rum, and Iraq. Its main force and greatest devastation (1) were felt in Syria, where many houses collapsed, (2) numerous quarters were laid waste, and an entire village in the region of Busra was swallowed up by the earth. Along the Syrian coastline and elsewhere (3) a great deal (4) was destroyed, and large sections (5) of Tripoli, Tyre, Acre, and Nablus were ruined. In Nablus nothing remained save the Samaritan quarter, and in the city and its surrounding villages (6) thirty thousand people perished beneath the rubble. A large part of the eastern minaret of the Great Mosque of Damascus (7) fell, together with fourteen (8) of its balconies; most of the Kallāsa quarter and the Nūrī bimaristan (9) also collapsed. The populace fled into the open squares, crying for help. Much of the fortress of Baalbek fell despite the strength of its construction. The sea split as far as Cyprus (10), casting ships (11) up onto its shore, and it advanced eastward so that (12) many houses crumbled and countless multitudes died. The author of “Mirror of the Times” asserts that in this year the earthquake claimed about (13) one million one hundred thousand human lives, as cited in “The Supplement to the Two Gardens.” (14)

Among the celebrated figures who died in this year (15) were:

The shaykh and ḥadīth master, the preacher Abū al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī (16): ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥummadā ibn