the absence of most of the amirs—those who had been his father’s mamluks as well as others—on a hunting expedition. When he apprehended him he sent him (1) off, together with his mother, his two sons, and his brothers, to the land of al-Ashkarī (2). He then declared himself sultan and adopted the title al-Malik al-Muẓaffar. This was, in fact, a mercy from Allah to the Muslims, for through him Allah broke the power of the Tatars (3), as will be clarified below, if Allah wills. Thus the excuse (4) he offered to the jurists, the judges, and to Ibn al-ʿAdīm became manifestly sound, for he said: “People must have a compelling sovereign who will fight the Muslims’ enemy on their behalf, whereas this boy is too young to manage the affairs of the kingdom.”
In the same year: al-Malik al-Nāṣir, lord of Damascus, marched out to the plain of Barzah (5) with large contingents of the army, volunteer fighters (6), Bedouins, and others. When he realized how incapable they were of standing up to the Mongols, the assemblage dispersed, and neither he nor they advanced (7). To Allah we belong, and to Him we shall return.
In the same year the following notable figure passed away (8):
The founder of the Ṣadriyya [waqf], (9) Ṣadr al-Dīn Asʿad ibn al-Munajjā (10) ibn Barakāt ibn Muʾammal al-Tanūkhī al-Maghribī, later of Damascus, a Ḥanbalī—one of the acknowledged assessors, a man of wealth, nobility, and continuous, beneficent charity. He endowed a madrasa (11) for the Ḥanbalīs, and he was buried there next to the tomb of al-Qāḍī al-Miṣrī (12) at the head of Darb al-Rayḥān on the side of
(1) A, B: “So detain him and dispatch him.”
(2) It appears he substituted this negation for “kill them.” However, had he killed them, it would have been more merciful, since they had been exposed to the temptation of conversion in the lands of al-Ashkari, and some of them did convert. [Siyar A‘lam al-Nubala’, vol. 23, pp. 200, 382]
(3) A, B: “For it is He through whose hands Allah facilitated the overthrow of the Tatars.”
(4) A, B: “And this.”
(5) T: reads “to Wata’ Barz.” Barzah today is one of Damascus’s neighborhoods; urban expansion has incorporated it into the city.
(6) T: “al-maqtu‘ah.”
(7) A, B: “and he did not endure.”
(8) A, B: “and among those who died there were leading figures.”
(9) Biography of As‘ad ibn al-Manjī in al-Rawdatayn, p. 203; al-‘Alaq al-Khaṭīrah, p. 257; Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 14, p. 860; al-‘Ibar, vol. 5, p. 279; al-I‘lām bi-Wafayāt al-‘Ulamā’, p. 275; Siyar A‘lam al-Nubala’, vol. 23, p. 275; al-Wāfi bi-l-Wafayāt, vol. 9, p. 43; Zayl Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah, vol. 2, p. 268; al-Nujūm al-Zāhirah, vol. 7, p. 71; al-Maqṣad al-Arshad, vol. 1, pp. 280–281; al-Dārīs, vol. 2, p. 86, and its abridgment, p. 126; Shudhūrāt al-Dhahab, vol. 7, p. 498; al-Ḥaqīqah wa-l-Majāz, vol. 1, p. 78; and Munādamat al-Aṭlāl, p. 239.
(10) T: reads “al-minjah”; a corruption.
(11) Badrān: “Its traces have been obliterated, and it has become ruins.” [al-‘Alaq al-Khaṭīrah, p. 257; al-Dārīs, vol. 2, p. 86; its abridgment, p. 126; Munādamat al-Aṭlāl, p. 239]
(12) “al-Jamāl al-Miṣri” (the Egyptian Jamāl), Yūnus ibn Badrān ibn Fīrūz: his biography appears earlier in the obituaries for the year 623 AH in this volume.