The vizier Naṣir al-Dīn Abū al-Azhar ⦗1⦘ Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad [ibn] al-Naqqād al-Baghdādī, minister to al-Mustanṣir and, after him, to his son al-Mustaʿṣim.
He was born into a family of merchants, yet rose to secure the vizierate for those two caliphs. Gifted and erudite, he had memorised the Quran and recited it often. Reared in sumptuous luxury, he later enjoyed formidable prestige. In his final years he was confined to his couch ⦗2⦘, but even so he remained the object of the greatest respect and honour. He composed many fine poems, a sizeable selection of which Ibn al-Saʿī has preserved. He died in this year, having passed the age of fifty—may Allah have mercy upon him.
The naqīb al-nuqabāʾ, khāṭib al-khuṭabāʾ, and wakīl al-khulafāʾ, Abū Ṭālib al-Ḥusayn ⦗3⦘ ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Hibat Allah ⦗4⦘ ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, a descendant of the caliph al-Muhtadī bi-Llāh of the ʿAbbāsid house,
was one of the nobles of the ʿAbbāsids, an imam of the Muslims, and a preacher to the believers. His conduct remained upright and sound; he never ceased giving the Friday sermon and was never touched by illness until, on the night of Saturday the twenty-second ⦗5⦘ of [Rajab of] this year, he rose in the night to attend to a need, fell upon the crown of his head, and a large quantity of blood issued from his mouth. He then fell silent ⦗6⦘, uttering not a single word that entire day until nightfall, when he passed away. His funeral was thronged with mourners—may Allah Most High have mercy on him and pardon him through His grace and generosity.
[Then the year three and forty and six hundred began (643 AH).]
It was known as the Year of the Khwarazmians. Al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb ibn al-Kāmil, ruler of Egypt, sent the Khwarazmian troops together with their king Barakāt Khān, under the command of Muʿīn al-Dīn ⦗7⦘ ibn al-Shaykh. They surrounded Damascus, besieging his uncle al-Ṣāliḥ [Ismāʿīl] Abū al-Khaysh ⦗8⦘, lord of Damascus, and they set fire ⦗9⦘ to the Palace of Ḥajjāj, the Ḥikr al-Sommāq, and the Jarrāḥ Mosque