His mother (1) was Asmāʾ, daughter of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Ṭāhir al-Qurashiyyah (2); her father was known as Abū al-Barakāt ibn al-Rān (3). He renovated Masjid al-Qadam in 517 AH, and both his grave and hers lie there, together with the graves of a large company (4) of scholars. She was the sister of Āmina (5), the mother of the judge Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Zakī (6).

From an early age Shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn applied himself to the noble sciences under his teacher Quṭb al-Dīn Masʿūd al-Nīsābūrī (7). He later married (8) the latter’s daughter and succeeded him as instructor at the Jarūkhiyyah. There he lived in one of the two halls he had built, and there—west of the īwān—he died. He next assumed the professorship of the Ṣalāḥiyyah Nāṣiriyyah in the Holy City of Jerusalem, after which al-ʿĀdil appointed him to the chair of the Taqwiyyah, and the foremost scholars gathered around him. Afterwards he freed himself for devotion, settling as a resident scholar in the Great Mosque in a small chamber beside the Companions’ mihrab, where he secluded himself for worship, study, and issuing legal opinions. Delegations (9) from many lands came to him. He was abundant in remembrance of Allah and of dignified bearing. Every Monday and Thursday he would sit beneath the Eagle mosaic, taking his uncle’s place to transmit hadith after the ʿAṣr prayer; Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwa and other works were read aloud to him. He attended the sessions of the Nūrī Dār al-Ḥadīth and was present at the opening of the shrine of Ibn ʿUrwah.

King al-ʿĀdil summoned him after dismissing his judge, Zakī al-Dīn (10) ibn al-Zakī, seated him beside himself at the banquet table, and asked him to accept the judgeship of Damascus. He answered, “I must first perform istikhāra (seek guidance from Allah).” He then declined, and his refusal (11) pained the sultan, who was on the verge of harming him, until it was said, “Praise Allah that there is in your realm (12) a man such as this.”