—poetry that was elegant and refined (1). In 632 AH he was appointed to teach the Hanbali curriculum at the Mustanṣiriyyah, and he held other teaching chairs as well (2). [When Muʾayyid al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿAlqamī became vizier and the professorship of the Ustādariyya fell vacant, this Muḥyī al-Dīn assumed it] (3). His son ʿAbd al-Raḥmān then took his place (4) in the office of ḥisbah and in delivering sermons, carrying out the task with excellence [and following a commendable course] (5). Thereafter the ḥisbah passed (6) in succession to his three sons—Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Sharaf al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh, and Tāj al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Karīm. They were all put to death together with him in that same year—may Allah be pleased with them.

Muḥyī al-Dīn also authored a treatise on the school of Aḥmad. Ibn al-Sāʿī records several fine poems of his in which he offered congratulations to the Caliph on festivals and special occasions; they testify to consummate virtue and outstanding eloquence. He endowed the Jawziyyah madrasa in Damascus, one of the city’s most beautiful and distinguished schools. May Allah accept this act from him and reward him, and us, and all Muslims with mercy and Paradise. Āmīn.

Al-Ṣarṣarī (7) the panegyrist—may Allah have mercy on him—is Yaḥyā ibn Yūsuf ibn Yaḥyā ibn Manṣūr ibn al-Muʿammar ʿAbd al-Salām, the shaykh, imām, and erudite scholar (8), distinguished in many branches of learning, Jamāl al-Dīn Abū Zakariyyā al-Ṣarṣarī (9), the blind Hanbali poet (10) of Baghdad. Most of his verse is devoted to praising the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and his collected works in this genre are famous and widely acknowledged (11). He was born in 588 AH, studied hadith, and memorized works on jurisprudence and the Arabic language. It is said that he knew by heart al-Jawharī’s Ṣiḥāḥ.