A Shafiʿi, he was devout, chaste, and utterly upright; in the cause of Allah he feared no reproach, and he would accept no one’s intercession. All the judicial posts of the Egyptian territories were united under his authority, together with the Friday pulpit, the office of ḥisba, the position of Shaykh al-Shuyūkh, the supervision of the ajyāsh (1), the professorships of the Shafiʿi College and the Ṣāliḥiyya, and the imamate of the congregational mosque. No fewer than fifteen (2) appointments were in his hands. At certain times he even assumed the vizierate. The sultan revered him, while the vizier Ibn Ḥannā (3) greatly feared him and wished to disgrace him before the sultan, yet was unable to do so. He longed for the judge to visit his house even once, if only on a sick-call. When the vizier fell ill on one occasion, the qadi came to enquire after him; Ibn Ḥannā walked to the middle of the courtyard to receive him. The qadi said, “We came merely to visit you in sickness, but behold, you are sound and well. Peace be upon you,” and he turned back (4) without sitting down. He was born in 604 AH, and after his death the judiciary passed to Taqi al-Din ibn Razīn (5).
The founder of the Qaymariyya, the eminent amir Nāṣir al-Din (6) Abū al-Maʿālī al-Ḥusayn ibn al-ʿAzīz (7) ibn Abī al-Fawāris al-Qaymarī (8) al-Kurdi, also died this year. He was one of the most highly placed commanders in the eyes of kings, and it was he who handed over Syria to al-Malik al-Nāṣir, lord of Aleppo, after the killing of Turan Shah ibn al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyub in Egypt. He endowed the Qaymariyya madrasah (9) beside the Fayruz minaret, and installed above its gate clocks the like of which had never been attempted before, nor fashioned in that shape. It is said that he spent forty thousand dirhams on them.
Shaykh Shiḥāb al-Din, known as Abū Shāma (10), ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUthmān ibn Abī Bakr ibn ʿAbbās
(1) Manuscript A reads “wa-nazara al-jaysh.”
(2) Manuscript T reads “khamsata ’ashar” (fifteen), which is incorrect.
(3) The biography of al-Wazīr Ibn Ḥannā will appear in Wafayāt (Deaths) for the year 677 AH in this volume, God willing.
(4) Manuscripts A and B read “waraǧaʿa” (he returned).
(5) The biography of Ibn Razīn will appear in Wafayāt for the year 680 AH in this volume, God willing.
(6) The biography of al-Qaimarī is found in the footnote of al-Rawdhatayn (p. 239) and in al-Dhayl (vol. 2, pp. 366–367); Tarīkh al-Islām (vol. 15, p. 113); al-Ishārah (p. 362); al-ʿIbar (vol. 5, p. 280); al-Wāfī bi-l-Wafayāt (vol. 12, p. 422); al-Nujūm al-Zāhirah (vol. 7, pp. 222, 224); al-Dāris fī Akhbār al-Madāris (vol. 1, pp. 441–442) and its epitome (p. 69); Shatharāt al-Dhahab (vol. 7, pp. 552–553); and Munādāt al-Aṭlāl (pp. 141–142).
(7) In al-Wāfī he is called “ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz,” and in al-Dāris “Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī.” In Munādāt al-Aṭlāl the name is corrupted to “Nāṣir ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī.” I have followed the reading of our manuscripts, which agrees with most sources (e.g. al-Dhayl al-Marʾah; al-ʿIbar; al-Ishārah; al-Nujūm; Shatharāt; etc.).
(8) “al-Qaimarī” denotes origin from Qaymar (qāf with fatḥa, silent yāʾ, ḍamma on mīm), a fortress in the mountains between Mosul and Khilāṭ. A number of leading figures of the Mosul and Khilāṭ principalities—Kurds known as “Abū al-Fawāris”—derive from there. See Muʿjam al-Buldān (vol. 4, p. 424). Note: Abū al-Fawāris was the ancestor of Emir Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Qaimarī.
(9) al-Dāris (vol. 1, p. 441); its epitome (p. 69); and Munādāt al-Aṭlāl (pp. 140–141).
(10) The biography of Abū Shāma appears in the footnote of Mirʾat al-Zamān (vol. 2, pp. 267–268); Tarīkh al-Islām (vol. 15, p. 114); al-Iʿlām bi Wafayāt al-Aʿlām (p. 278); al-ʿIbar (vol. 5, pp. 280–281); al-Ishārah (p. 361); al-Wāfī (vol. 18, p. 113); al-Nujūm (vol. 7, p. 224); and Shatharāt al-Dhahab.