madrasa substantial, ever-producing endowments, and he stocked it with a fine and useful library. In the same year he returned to Baghdad, and—much against his will—was appointed Chief Judge. He remained in office for seventeen days, then passed to the mercy of Allah on the first of Dhu’l-Ḥijjah of this year. He was buried in the Shunīziyyah cemetery, may Allah have mercy on him.

In Dhu’l-Ḥijjah of this year, only a few days after al-Badrāʾī’s death, the Tatars descended upon Baghdad as the vanguard of their king Hülegü (1) ibn Tūlī ibn Chinggis Khān—upon them be the curses of the All-Merciful. Their capture of the city and the crimes they committed there took place at the beginning of the following year, as will be set forth in detail—Allah’s help is sought.

[Among the notable figures who died this year]

• al-Badrāʾī, the founder of the Badrāʾiyyah in Damascus, whose account has already been given—may Allah have mercy on him.

• Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Fahm (2) al-Yaldānī (3), who died there on the eighth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal and was buried there (4). He was a righteous shaykh who occupied himself with hadith—listening, writing, and transmitting—until his death at about one hundred years of age.

I say: Most of his books and compilations, penned in his own hand, are endowed in the Fāḍilīyah library of the Klāsah. He once saw in a dream (5) the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He asked, “O Messenger of Allah, am I not a good man?” He replied, “Indeed, you are a good man.” May Allah have mercy on him and honour his resting place.

• Shaykh Sharaf al-Dīn (6) Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Faḍl al-Mursī. He was an accomplished, exacting, and incisive scholar (7), a frequent pilgrim, held in esteem by the great, and he amassed a large collection of books,