Then the year 662 AH began (1) while the caliph was al-Hākim bi-Amr Allāh of the ʿAbbāsids, the sultan al-Ẓāhir Baybars, the deputy of Damascus the amir Jamāl al-Dīn Āqūsh al-Najībī (2), and its judge Shams al-Dīn Ibn Khallikān (3).

During that year: At its very outset the Ẓāhiriyyah Madrasa located “between the Two Palaces” was completed. The chair for Shāfiʿī jurisprudence there was assigned to the judge Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Razīn (4); the Ḥanafī lectureship went to Majd al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Kamāl al-Dīn ʿUmar Ibn al-ʿAdīm (5); and the post of shaykh of ḥadīth was given to Shaykh Sharaf al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Muʾmin (6) ibn Khalaf, the ḥāfiẓ of Dumyāṭ (7).

Also that year, al-Ẓāhir (8) endowed a travelers’ khan in Jerusalem, establishing pious foundations for its guests so their sandals might be mended, their meals provided, and other needs met, and he built in it both a mill and an oven.

Still in the same year, envoys of Berke Khan arrived before al-Malik al-Ẓāhir, bringing with them al-Ashraf, son of al-Shihāb Ghāzī ibn al-ʿĀdil, together with letters and oral messages that delighted Islam and its people concerning what had befallen Hūlāgū and his clan.

In Jumādā al-Ākhirah of that year Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Shāmah (9) ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ismāʿīl al-Maqdisī delivered a lesson at the Dār al-Ḥadīth al-Ashrafiyyah after the death of the qadi ʿImād al-Dīn ibn al-Harastānī. Present were the judge Shams al-Dīn Ibn Khallikān and a number of judges (10) and notables. He read the preface of his book “al-Mabʿath,” transmitted the ḥadīth with its chain of narration and wording, and cited many commendable benefits. It is said that he consulted no reference beforehand—not even his own notes—and for one of his caliber that is hardly remarkable (11). Allah knows best.