Also that year, the preacher of the Mountain, Sharaf al-Din ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Shaykh Abu ʿUmar (1) — may Allah have mercy on him — passed away. Al-Sayf Ahmad ibn ʿIsa (2), the son of the Imam Muwaffaq al-Din Ibn Qudamah, likewise died.
In the same year, the Imām of the Kalāsah Mosque, Shaykh Taj al-Din Abu al-Hasan Muhammad (3) ibn Abu Jaʿfar — the foremost musnid of his age and the leading hadith scholar of his time in both narration and righteousness — passed away, may Allah Most High have mercy on him. The two eminent hadith masters, the erudite and beneficial huffāẓ, Sharaf al-Din Ahmad ibn al-Jawhari (4) and Taj al-Din ʿAbd al-Jalil al-Abhari (5), also died.
Then the year 644 AH began. During it al-Mansur routed the Khwarazmians at Lake Homs, and the deputies of al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyub secured control of Damascus, Baalbek, and Busra. In Jumada al-Akhira, Fakhr al-Din ibn al-Shaykh dealt the Khwarazmians a crushing defeat at al-Salt, scattering (6) the remainder of their forces. Afterwards, al-Nasir besieged al-Karak but withdrew and returned to Damascus. In Dhu al-Qaʿda al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyub himself arrived in Damascus; he treated its people generously, took possession of the aforementioned cities (7), wrested Sarkhad from ʿIzz al-Din Aybak — compensating him for it — seized al-Salt from al-Nasir Dawud ibn al-Muʿaẓẓam, and captured the fortress of al-Subaybah (8) from al-Saʿid ibn al-ʿAziz ibn al-ʿAdil. His stature grew enormously. On his return he visited Jerusalem, examined its condition, and ordered that its walls be rebuilt as they had been in—
(1) Biography of al-Khaṭīb al-Jabal, named ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Qudāma al-Maqdisī, later al-Ṣāliḥī al-Khaṭīb Sharaf al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad. See al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 14, p. 446; al-ʿIbar, vol. 5, p. 176; Dhayl Ibn Rajab, vol. 2, pp. 234–235; al-Maqṣad al-Arshad, vol. 2, pp. 54–55; al-Qalāʾid al-Jawhariyya, p. 478; Shudhūr al-Dhahab, vol. 7, pp. 379–380.
(2) Biography of Saif al-Dīn Ibn Qudāma. See al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 14, p. 434; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 23, pp. 118–119; al-ʿIbar, vol. 5, p. 174; Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ, pp. 1446–1447; al-Wāfī bi’l-Wafayāt, vol. 7, p. 273; Dhayl Ibn Rajab, vol. 2, p. 241; al-Nujūm al-Zāhira, vol. 6, p. 353; al-Qalāʾid al-Jawhariyya, p. 435; Shudhūr al-Dhahab, vol. 7, p. 377.
(3) Biography of Ibn Jaʿfar, named Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. ʿAli al-Qurṭubī al-Dimashqī. See Dhayl al-Rawḍatayn, vol. 1, p. 176; Takmilat Ibn al-Ṣābūnī, pp. 32, 293; al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 14, p. 467; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 23, pp. 217–218; al-ʿIbar, vol. 5, p. 179; al-Wāfī bi’l-Wafayāt, vol. 2, p. 118; al-Nujūm al-Zāhira, vol. 6, p. 355; Shudhūr al-Dhahab, vol. 7, p. 391.
(4) Biography of Ibn al-Jawharī, named Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Maḥmūd b. Ibrāhīm b. Nabḥān al-Dimashqī, Sharaf al-Dīn Ibn al-Jawharī. See al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 14, p. 436; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 23, p. 264; Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ, p. 1459; al-ʿIbar, vol. 5, p. 175; al-Wāfī bi’l-Wafayāt, vol. 8, p. 167; al-Nujūm al-Zāhira, vol. 6, p. 354; al-Dāris, vol. 1, p. 111; Shudhūr al-Dhahab, vol. 7, p. 378.
(5) He is ʿAbd al-Jalīl b. ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Wāsiʿ, Tāj al-Dīn al-Abharī. His biography is in al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 14, p. 448 (entry “Bishār”).
(6) Manuscripts A and B read “farraq ʿalayh.”
(7) Present only in the Ṭ edition.
(8) Edition Ṭ reads “al-ṣabiyya,” a corruption.