Al-Malik al-Zāhir Mujīr al-Dīn (1) Abū Sulaymān Dāwūd ibn al-Malik al-Mujāhid Asad Shīrkūh, lord of Ḥimṣ, son of Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam—Asad al-Dīn Shīrkūh ibn Shādhī (2).
He died in his orchard at the age of eighty. The funeral prayer was held for him in the al-Muẓaffarī congregational mosque, and he was buried in his family plot at the foot of the mountain. He was devout, praying often in the mosque, and he possessed ijāzahs (certificates of transmission) from al-Muʾayyad al-Ṭūsī, Zaynab al-Shaʿrīyah, Abū Rūḥ, and others. He passed away (3) in Jumādā al-Ākhirah.
Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn al-Wāsiṭī (4) Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Faḍl al-Wāsiṭī al-Dimashqī, the Ḥanbalī,
was the shaykh of ḥadith at the Ẓāhiriyyah in Damascus. He died on a Friday, late in the day, on the twenty-fourth of Jumādā al-Ākhirah, at the age of ninety. A righteous and devoted worshipper, he alone enjoyed the loftiest chains of transmission (5), and no equal remained after his passing. Having first studied jurisprudence in Baghdad, he journeyed to Greater Syria, teaching for twenty years in the Ṣāliḥiyyah and in the Abū ʿUmar madrasa. In the last part of his life he was appointed head of ḥadith studies at the Ẓāhiriyyah (6) after al-Fārūthī set out on his travels. He was an advocate of the doctrine of the salaf and the earliest generations: he visited the sick, attended funerals, commanded what is right, and forbade what is wrong. He was among the choicest servants of Allah—may He have mercy on him.
As a side note, Ibn al-Aʿmā is not Zāhir al-Dīn Muḥammad—the epithet “al-Aʿmā” refers to his father, Zāhir al-Dīn. The Ibn al-Aʿmā who authored the Maqāma is in fact named ʿAlī, with the honorific Kamāl al-Dīn. It is therefore preferable to read the text as follows:
“Ibn al-Aʿmā, author of the Maqāma, Kamāl al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Shaykh Zāhir al-Dīn Muḥammad …”
This restores the coherence of the passage. This individual is profiled in al-Barzālī’s Tarīkh, in Ibn al-Jazrī’s Tarīkh (vol. 1, fols. 95–97 of the Paris manuscript), and in al-Dhahabī’s Tarīkh al-Islām, where he writes in his own hand:
“ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Mubārak, the littérateur Kamāl al-Dīn ibn al-Aʿmā the poet, author of the Maqāma found in al-Fuqārāʾ al-Mujarradīn. He transmitted from Ibn al-Lattī and others. He died on the thirteenth of Muḥarram. In his old age he was one of the last poets of the Nāṣirī state. Toward the end of his life he retired to al-Qulayshiyya, and he served as a reader (muqriʾ) at the Ashrafiyya madrasa in Ṭīberiyya and elsewhere. The epithet al-Aʿmā (the blind) was applied to his father, Shaykh Zāhir al-Dīn al-Naḥwī the blind grammarian, who once delivered the Friday sermon in Jerusalem.” (15:754)
God knows best; to al-Dhahabī we refer for final authority.
(1) Biography of al-Malik al-Zāhir in Ibn al-Jazrī’s Tarīkh (vol. 1, fol. 101 of the Paris manuscript); Tarīkh al-Islām (15:747–748) (Bashār).
(2) The words enclosed in square brackets appear in manuscript B and in Tarīkh al-Islām; they are necessary to prevent any ambiguity (Bashār).
(3) Manuscript B reads: “and his death occurred.”
(4) Biography of Taqī al-Dīn al-Wāsiṭī in Tarīkh al-Islām (15:745); al-Iʿlām bi-Wafayāt al-Aʿlām (6:289); al-Ishāra al-Muntaqā min Tarīkh al-Islām (p. 380); al-ʿIbar (5:375); al-Wāfī bi-l-Wafayāt (6:66); Dhayl Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābila (2:329); al-Nujūm al-Zāhira (8:40); al-Dalīl al-Shāfī (1:23); al-Maqṣad al-Arshad (1:231–232); Shudhūrāt al-Dhahab (7:733–734); and al-Dāris (1:357; 2:82–83).
(5) Reading A: “a righteous man of high standing in the chain of transmission.” In manuscript B: “a righteous, devout man distinguished by an exceptional chain of transmission.”
(6) Manuscript B adds: “at the Zāhirī school.”