visions and miraculous feats, yet all of this was nothing but the superstitions of the common folk and the ravings of delirious people, just as they imagine such things in other madmen and the obsessed.
When Shaykh Yūsuf al-Qamīnī died, a great multitude (1) of commoners and others attended his funeral. His bier was borne on the shoulders of men all the way to the foot of Mount Qāsiyūn. In front of it marched a noisy rabble, shouting, chanting tahlīl, and engaging in practices unbecoming of the masses, until they reached the burial ground of the eccentrics at Qāsiyūn and interred him there. Some of the commoners then took special care of his grave: they set carved stones upon it, built over it a domed roof with painted muqarnas, erected a screen and doors, and went to extravagant lengths in venerating him. He and a group of companions remained there for some time, reciting and chanting tahlīl, while food (2) was cooked for them so that they might eat and drink on the spot.
The point is that, after Shaykh Yūsuf al-Qamīnī’s death, Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-Jayʿānah came from the Shāghūr quarter to Bāb al-Ṣaghīr accompanied by a number of his followers, all of them wailing, clamouring, and making a great uproar (3). They kept repeating, “We have been granted permission to enter the city! We have been granted permission to enter the city!” When someone asked him about this, he replied, “For twenty years I have not set foot inside the walls (4) of Damascus. Every time I approached one of its gates I found that lion crouching there, and I could not enter for fear of him. Now that he has died we have been given leave to go in.” All of this was merely a ruse to obtain food from the gullible masses—the rabble who follow every shrill caller. It was also said that Shaykh Yūsuf used to send al-Jayʿānah part of what came to him as donations. Allah, exalted is He, knows best the states of His servants (5); to Him is the return and the ultimate abode, and before Him is the reckoning.
[Azdamar] (6) al-Silḥidārī. We have already mentioned that several amirs were martyred in the battle of Ḥimṣ, among them the amir ʿIzz al-Dīn Azdamar al-Silḥidārī, who was about sixty years of age. He was one of the finest of the amirs, possessed of lofty resolve, and by that resolve he is worthy of attaining a high station in Paradise (7).
Chief Judge (8) Taqī al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Razīn ibn Mūsā (9) al-ʿĀmirī al-Ḥamawī, the Shāfiʿī.