The Outer Naṣiriyyah (1) located on the slope is one of the most striking (2) and best-constructed buildings, fashioned of firmly bonded, solid masonry; it predates the Afram Mosque (3), which he erected a long time later. Similarly, the Inner Naṣiriyyah (4) that he built inside Bāb al-Farādis ranks among the finest madrasahs. He also constructed the Great Khān opposite the Zanjari, and the public soup kitchen was transferred there; previously it had stood west of the Citadel, in what is today the Sultan’s stable (may Allah have mercy on him).
In this same year there passed away among the notables (5):
Ahmad (6) ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh (7) ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Sayyid al-Nas, Abū Bakr al-Yaʿmarī al-Andalusī, the ḥāfiẓ. Born in 597 AH, he heard a vast amount of ḥadīth, amassed an impressive library, authored fine works, and was considered the last of the great ḥadīth masters in those (8) lands. He died in the city of Tunis on the twenty-fourth (9) of Rajab of this very year.
Also among those who died in it:
ʿAbd al-Razzāq ibn Rizq Allāh (10) ibn Abū Bakr ibn Khalaf, ʿIzz al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad al-Rassaʿnī (11), the ḥadīth scholar and Qur’an exegete.
(1) al-Dāris (vol. 6, p. 115) and al-Qalāʾid al-Jawhariyya (vol. 1, p. 880).
(2) Manuscripts A and B read Aghrab al-Amkina.
(3) al-Dāris (vol. 6, p. 115). I note that this mosque still stands today on the Ṭarīq al-Muhājirīn, opposite Ṭalʿat al-Bashkātib.
(4) al-Dāris (vol. 1, p. 459) and Munādamat al-Aṭlāl (p. 149).
(5) Manuscripts A and B read wa-mimman tūffiya fīhā (“and among those who died there”).
(6) In the original editions and Ṭabaʿa printings the name is erroneously inverted as Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad; the correct form is Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh. This correction appears in al-Ḥusaynī’s notes to Ṣillat al-Takmila (fol. 209 of my copy) and in al-Dhahabī’s Tārīkh al-Islām (vol. 14, p. 916). Ibn al-ʿAbbār, in his biography of his father Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh (d. 618 AH), states: “Our companion Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad narrated from him” (al-Takmila li-Kitāb al-Ṣila, vol. 1, p. 98, al-Harās ed.). He is the ancestor of al-Ḥāfiẓ Fatḥ al-Dīn Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, author of ʿUyūn al-Athar fī Funūn al-Maghāzī wa al-Shamāʾil wa al-Siyar (d. 734 AH) (Būshār ed.).
(7) The biography of Ibn Sayyid al-Nās appears in Shudhūr al-Dhahab (vol. 7, p. 528) and Tārīkh al-Islām (vol. 14, p. 916); he died in 659 AH.
(8) Manuscript A reads bi-tilka (“with that”).
(9) The printed edition reads “He died in the city of Tunis on the 27th of Rajab,” which is incorrect; here the reading follows al-Ḥusaynī’s Ṣillat and al-Dhahabī’s Tārīkh al-Islām (Būshār ed.).
(10) The biography of al-Rasʿanī appears in the appendices of Mirʾāt al-Zamān (vol. 1, p. 545; vol. 2, p. 219), Tārīkh al-Islām (vol. 15, p. 38), al-ʿIbar (vol. 5, p. 64), al-I‘lām bi-Wafayāt al-Aʿlām (p. 276), al-Nujūm al-Zāhira (vol. 7, p. 211), and Shudhūr al-Dhahab (vol. 7, p. 529). In the printed edition his name is erroneously given as ʿAbd Allāh.
(11) The name al-Rasʿanī is pronounced with a fatḥa on the rā’, the ʿayn and sīn unvoweled; it denotes origin from Ra’s al-ʿAyn, a city in al-Jazīra. Cf. Shudhūr al-Dhahab (vol. 7, p. 529).