and after him his son al-Malik al-Muẓaffar assumed the throne, having been formally invested with it by al-Malik al-Manṣūr (1).
Judge Jamāl al-Dīn Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-Zawāwī (2) was the Chief Judge of the Mālikīs and their lecturer after Qāḍī Zayn al-Dīn al-Zawāwī, who had resigned his post. Al-Zawāwī had served as his deputy and, upon his retirement, took charge of the judiciary on his own. He died (3) on the fifth of Dhū al-Qaʿda while on the road to the Ḥijāz. A learned and virtuous scholar, he was unassuming and free of affectation. The office remained vacant for three years after his death. During that interval, teaching for the Mālikīs was undertaken first by Shaykh Jamāl al-Dīn al-Sharīshī (4), then by Abū Isḥāq al-Lawrī (5), followed by Majd al-Dīn Abū Bakr al-Tūnisī (6). When Qāḍī Jamāl al-Dīn ibn Sulaymān (7) arrived to take up the judgeship, he lectured in the madrasas. Allah, exalted is He, knows best.
Then came the year 684 AH.
In the closing days of Muḥarram, al-Malik al-Manṣūr entered Damascus with his armies. The lord of Ḥamāh, al-Malik al-Muẓaffar ibn al-Manṣūr, came to wait upon him; the Sultan (8) received him with the assembled troops and conferred upon him the royal robe of honor. The Sultan then set out, and the glad tidings (9) spread through both Egypt and Syria. He encamped before the fortress of al-Marqab, which Allah granted to the Muslims on Friday, the eighteenth of Ṣafar. News of the victory reached Damascus (10); drums of rejoicing were beaten, the city was decorated, and the Muslims rejoiced (11), for this fortress had long been a source of harm to them, and none of the Muslim kings had ever succeeded in capturing it (12)—neither King Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, nor King
(1) In manuscript B: al-Mansur Qalawun.
(2) In manuscripts A and the printed edition: al-Razai, which is a corruption. Bashar reports that his biography appears in the appendix to al-Mirʾah (vol. 4, p. 239) and Tarikh al-Islam (vol. 15, p. 514).
(3) In manuscript B: the phrase “wa-kanat wafatuhu” (and his death occurred).
(4) The biography of al-Shurayshi appears in Wafayat, p. 685.
(5) Abu Ishaq al-Lawari was Ibrahim b. Abd al-Aziz b. Yahya al-Raʿini, the Andalusi Maliki muhaddith. He settled in Damascus, served as deputy judge, then headed the Zahiriyah Dar al-Hadith. He died in 687 AH (see Nasd al-mustadrak ala al-ibar, vol. 10).
(6) In manuscript A: Badr al-Din Abu Bakr al-Tunsi; in manuscript B: Badr al-Din Abu Bakr al-Bisri; in the printed edition: Badr al-Din Abu Bakr al-Buraysi. All are corruptions. The correct reading is Majd al-Din Abu Bakr b. Muhammad b. Qasim al-Tunsi al-Shafi‘i, who died in 718 AH. See Shudhurat al-Dhahab (vol. 8, p. 86) and Dhuyul al-Ibar (p. 99).
(7) See ad-Daris (vol. 2, p. 5).
(8) In manuscript B: “fa-tallaqahu al-sultan bi-jamīʿ.”
(9) In manuscript B: “wa fakhkhar bil-ʿaskar al-shāmiyyah ayḍan wa azāla al-murqib” (and he also honored him with the Syrian troops and removed the overseer).
(10) In manuscript A: “wa jiʾat al-bishāra ilā Dimashq bi-dhālika” (and the glad tidings of that reached Damascus). In manuscript B: “wa jiʾat al-bishāra bi-dhālika ilā Dimashq wa quriʾa al-kitāb al-sultan bi-Dimashq qaraʾahu ʿalā minbar al-wuʿāḍ al-qāḍī Najm al-Din b. Abī al-Ṭibbīb wa duqqat al-bashāʾir wa zayyin al-balad” (and the glad tidings of that reached Damascus; the sultan’s proclamation was read in Damascus by the judge and preacher Najm al-Din ibn Abi al-Tibbib from the pulpit, the trumpets were sounded, and the city was adorned).
(11) In manuscript B: “bi-dhālika faraḥan shadīdan” (with intense joy).
(12) In manuscript B: “min al-mulūk” (among the kings).