In this same year, Sultan al-Mansur (1) sent every member of Sultan al-Zahir’s household—women, children, and servants—out of Egypt to Karak so that they might remain under the protection of Sultan al-Masʿud Khidr ibn al-Zahir.

Among the notable figures who died this year was Abaqa (2), the Tatar khan, son of Hulagu Khan (3) ibn Tolui ibn Chinggis. A man of high ambition and far-reaching vision, he possessed sound judgment and keen strategic sense. He lived fifty years and ruled for eighteen, and after his father none equalled him in prudence and resolve. The recent battle of Homs was neither undertaken on his advice nor with his approval; rather, his brother Mongke-Temür desired it, and he did not oppose him. I read in one of the Baghdadi chronicles (4) that Mongke-Temür’s advance into Syria was prompted by a letter from Sunqur al-Ashqar—Allah knows best. Abaqa himself came and encamped near the Euphrates to see what the outcome would be (5); when disaster struck his forces, he was distressed and died from grief and sorrow. He passed away between the two ʿEids that year, and the throne was assumed after him by his son Sultan Ahmad.

Chief Judge (6) Najm al-Din Abū Bakr [Muḥammad] (7) ibn Chief Judge Ṣadr al-Din Aḥmad ibn Chief Judge Shams al-Din Yaḥyā ibn Hibat Allah ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Shāfiʿī, a grandson of Sanī al-Dawla, was born in 616 AH. He studied hadith, mastered the Shafiʿi school, served as his father’s deputy—earning praise for his conduct—and later held the independent judiciary in the al-Muẓaffarī realm, where he was likewise commended. Shaykh Shihāb al-Din, however, used to censure him and his father.

Al-Barzalī said: “He was strict and scrupulous in his rulings. He was obliged to reside in Egypt, where he taught in the congregational mosque; then he returned to Damascus and lectured at the Amīniyya and Rukniyya madrasas, undertook the judgeship of Aleppo, and afterward (8) returned to Damascus, where Sanjar appointed him to a judgeship.”