and the ruler of Irbil (1) as well. They urged him to rebel against al-Ashraf, so al-Ashraf wrote warning him to desist, but he paid no heed. Al-Ashraf therefore mustered the armies to march against him.
In the same year: Aqsīs, representative of King al-Masʿūd (2), the governor of Yemen and son of al-Kāmil, set out from Yemen for the sanctified Mecca. Ḥasan ibn Qatādah confronted him in the valley of Mecca, between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah. Aqsīs routed him, drove him into flight, and gained sole control of Mecca together with Yemen. Terrible events ensued, and Ḥasan ibn Qatādah—the killer of his own father, uncle, and brother—was left wandering destitute among those ravines and valleys.
Among the notable deaths this year were:
• Shaykh al-Imām Muwaffaq al-Dīn Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī (3), author of the legal compendium al-Mughnī.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Qudāmah (4), Shaykh Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad al-Maqdisī, was an outstanding imam and scholar; in his own age—and indeed for many generations before—no one surpassed him in jurisprudence. He was born in Jammāʿīl (5) in Shaʿbān 541 AH, came with his family to Damascus in 551, memorised the Quran, and heard a vast number of hadiths. He travelled twice to Iraq: the first time, in 561, with his cousin (6) the ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī, and the second in 567. He performed the pilgrimage in 573. In Baghdad he studied according to the school of Imām Aḥmad, excelled, issued fatwas, debated, and mastered many disciplines. All this he combined with asceticism, worship, piety, humility, fine character, generosity, modesty, a dignified bearing, radiance, abundant recitation, prayer, fasting, night vigils, an exemplary spiritual path, and strict adherence to the way of the righteous predecessors. He was also granted spiritual states and unveilings.
Al-Shāfiʿī—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “If the practicing scholars (7) are not the friends of Allah, then I know not whom Allah counts as His friend.”
He and Shaykh al-ʿImād used to lead the people in prayer from the Hanbalis’ mihrab (8); when al-ʿImād passed away, he continued to do so alone.