—our shaykh, Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad, son of Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn Abī al-Qāsim ibn Taymiyyah al-Ḥarrānī, was born in Ḥarrān on Monday, the tenth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 661 AH.

The senior amir Mujīr al-Dīn (1) Abū al-Hayjāʾ [ibn] ʿĪsā ibn Khushtarin (2) al-Azkushī, the Kurdish Umayyad, was counted among the foremost and bravest of the amirs. On the day of ʿAyn Jālūt he rendered outstanding service (3) in breaking the power of the Tatars. When al-Malik al-Muẓaffar entered Damascus after the battle, he appointed him, together with the amir ʿAlam al-Dīn Sanjar (4) al-Ḥalabī, as deputy governor of Damascus, consulting with him and sharing (5) in decision-making and the issuing of decrees. He would sit with him in the Dār al-ʿAdl, enjoyed a full iqṭāʿ and ample income, and continued thus until he died in this year.

Abū Shāma (6) said: “His father, the amir Ḥusām al-Dīn, died in the army of al-Malik al-Ashraf in the eastern lands, together with the amir ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn al-Mashṭūb (7).”

I say: His son, the amir ʿIzz al-Dīn, governed (8) this city—meaning Damascus—for a period. He was praised for his conduct, and the Lane of Ibn Sanūn (9) in the Old Goldsmiths’ Quarter is ascribed to him; hence it is called “the Lane of Ibn Abī al-Hayjāʾ,” for he lived there (10) and exercised his office there, so it came to be known by his name. Shortly after his death our family lodged in that very lane when we came from Ḥawrān and I was still a child, and it was there that I completed the recitation of the Noble Qurʾan. All praise and favor belong to Allah, and we ask Him to cause us to die adhering to the Book and the Sunnah (11).