of exceptional magnitude and imposing prestige, and he was appointed Shaykh al-Shuyūkh in Baghdad (1). May Allah Almighty have mercy on him. All the reins of authority were gathered into his hands (2); thereafter he was slaughtered in the Caliphal Palace like a sheep, at the hands of the Tatars (3).
The devout shaykh (4) ʿAlī al-Khabbāz (5).
He had disciples and followers in Baghdad, and a zawiya that people visited. The Tatars killed him and threw his body onto a rubbish heap at the door of his zawiya, where it remained for three days until dogs ate from his flesh. It is said that he himself foretold this during his lifetime—may Allah Almighty have mercy on him.
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl (6) ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Fatḥ, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Maqdisī (7), the preacher of Marda (8).
He heard a vast number of traditions and lived for ninety years. In the year 653 AH (9) he came to Damascus, where the people received many narrations from him; he then returned and died in his hometown, Marda (10), in this same year—may Allah have mercy on him (11).
al-Badr Luʾluʾ (12), lord of Mosul, surnamed al-Malik al-Raḥīm.
He died (13) in Shaʿbān of this year, at the age of one hundred (14). He had ruled Mosul for nearly fifty years and was a man of intellect, cunning, and guile; he persisted in plotting against the sons of his former master until he eradicated them and eliminated the Atabeg state from
(1) In T: “When the caliphate returned to him after a long period, it exalted and magnified him, granting him prestige.” This reading does not appear in A or B.
(2) In A and B: “and (she) joined him.” This reading is not found in T.
(3) In A and B: “as the sheep is slaughtered in that year.”
(4) In T: al-Shaykh ʻAli al-ʻĀbid al-Khabbāz; in B: al-Shaykh al-ʻĀbid ʻAbd al-Jabbār—this is a corruption. This reading does not occur in A.
(5) Biography of Ali al-Khabbāz in: Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 14, p. 833; al-ʿIbar, vol. 5, p. 233; Shadharāt al-Dhahab, vol. 7, p. 385.
(6) Biography of Khāṭib Mardā in: Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 23, pp. 325–326; Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 14, p. 838; al-ʿI‘lām bi-Wafayāt al-A‘lām, p. 274; al-ʿIbar, vol. 5, p. 235; al-Wāfī bi-l-Wafayāt, vol. 2, p. 219; Dhayl Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābila, vol. 2, p. 267; al-Nujūm al-Zāhira, vol. 7, p. 69; al-Maqṣad al-Arshad, vol. 2, p. 378; Shadharāt al-Dhahab, vol. 7, pp. 489–490.
(7) In A and B: “son of Aḥmad son of Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Maqdisī,” which is incomplete; all biographical sources read “son of Abū al-Fatḥ.”
(8) In T: “Barād” is a corruption. The correct reading is Mardā (with a fatḥa), a village near Nablus (Mu‘jam al-Buldān, 5/104).
(9) In T: “he was born” is incorrect, since he was born in 566 according to his sources; the passage intends “he visited Damascus in 653,” i.e., three years before his death.
(10) In T: “Barāda”; a corruption noted above and here corrected.
(11) The pronoun hum (“they”) appears only in T.
(12) Biography of al-Badr Luʾluʾ in: Dhayl al-Rawdatayn, p. 203; Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 14, p. 864; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 23, pp. 356–359; al-ʿIbar, vol. 5, p. 240; Mirʾāt al-Janān, vol. 4, p. 148; al-Nujūm al-Zāhira, vol. 7, p. 70; Shadharāt al-Dhahab, vol. 7, pp. 499–500. The correct year of his death is 657, as confirmed by all biographical sources.
(13) In A and B: they read kānat wafātuhu (“it was his death”).
(14) In the margin of T: “In Egyptian notation: eighty years.” Bashshār commented: “This is correct.”