He had passed the age of eighty, and kings—let alone those beneath them—stood ready to serve him. (1)
The next entry concerns the shaykh, imām, scholar, and muftī (2), preacher and physician, Majd al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Fatḥ Suḥnūn (3) al-Tanūkhī al-Ḥanafī, preacher of al-Nayrab (4) and lecturer at the Dimāghiyya school for the Ḥanafīs. He was an accomplished and skillful physician—he died in al-Nayrab and his funeral prayer was held in the Ṣāliḥiyya Jāmiʿ—an upright man who composed pleasing poetry and transmitted a small number of hadiths. He died on the night of Saturday, 5 Dhu al-Qaʿda, at the age of seventy-five.
Al-Fārūthī (5): the shaykh, imām, scholar (6), devout ascetic and preacher ʿIzz al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn al-Shaykh Faḥy al-Dīn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Faraj ibn Sābūr ibn ʿAlī ibn Ghanīmah al-Fārūthī (7) of Wāsiṭ. Born in 614 AH, he studied hadith, traveled in search of it, and excelled in it as well as in Qurʾanic exegesis, jurisprudence, preaching, and rhetoric. Pious, learned, scrupulous, and ascetic, he arrived in Damascus during the reign of al-Ẓāhir (8), was granted the professorship of the Jārūkhiyya (9) and the position of imām at the Ibn Hishām Mosque, together with a stipend from the charitable endowments. Charitable and self-sacrificing (10), he enjoyed sound spiritual states and many unveilings. One day he stepped forward into the miḥrāb of the Ibn Hishām Mosque to lead the congregation; before uttering the takbīr al-iḥrām, he turned to his right (11) and said,
“Go out and perform ghusl (a complete ritual bath).”
No one went out, so he repeated the order a second and a third time,
(1) In manuscript B: “and others (may God have mercy on him).”
(2) Ibn Sahnūn’s biography is found in: Tārīkh al-Islām (History of Islam), vol. 15, p. 790; Al-ʿIbar (Lessons), vol. 5, p. 282; Fawāt al-Wafayāt (The Missing Lives), vol. 2, pp. 417–419; the supplement by Ibn Fahd to Tadhkirat al-Huffāz (Memoir of the Ḥuffāz), p. 84; Dalīl al-Shāfī (The Sure Guide), vol. 1, p. 432; al-Dāris (The Student), vol. 1, p. 519; Shudhūrāt al-Dhahab (Fragments of Gold), vol. 7, p. 745; and Ṭabaqāt al-Sunniyya (The Sunni Classes), vol. 4, pp. 404–407.
(3) The spelling appears as given in Al-ʿIbar, Shudhūrāt al-Dhahab, and Dalīl al-Shāfī, but with a fatḥa (short “a”) on the sīn in Ṭabaqāt al-Sunniyya. Bashar notes that both forms occur.
(4) Nairb is a picturesque region located near ar-Rabwa, one of the summer resorts of Damascus.
(5) Al-Fārūthī’s biography is recorded in: Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 15, p. 782; Al-Iʿlām bi-Wafayāt al-Aʿlām (Notices of the Mortality of Notables), p. 290; Al-ʿIbar, vol. 5, p. 381; Al-Ishrāʾ al-Muntaqa min Tārīkh al-Islām (Selected Excerpts from the History of Islam), p. 381; Al-Wāfī bi-l-Wafayāt (The Complete on the Deceased), vol. 6, p. 219; Fawāt al-Wafayāt, vol. 1, p. 55; Ṭabaqāt al-Isnawī, vol. 2, pp. 290–291; the supplement to Tadhkirat al-Huffāz by Ibn Fahd, pp. 85–89; Al-Nujūm al-Zāhira (The Shining Stars), vol. 8, p. 76; al-Dāris, vol. 1, p. 355; and Shudhūrāt al-Dhahab, vol. 7, p. 343.
(6) Present only in manuscript B.
(7) Al-Fārūthī: named after Farūth. It is a large village with a market on the Tigris between Wasit and al-Madhār (Muʿjam al-Buldān, vol. 4, p. 229).
(8) In manuscript B: “the Dhāhirī dynasty.”
(9) In the printed edition: “al-Jārūdhiyya,” a corruption. The place is named after its founder, Jārūkh al-Turkumānī, and today lies in the Jaddat al-Sab‘a Tawaali‘, having been converted into residential dwellings (Amīr Jaʿfar in al-Dāris, vol. 1, p. 225).
(10) In the printed edition: “Ithar,” a corruption.
(11) In manuscript B: “Sāliha,” with the note that he once approached the mihrāb of the Ibn Hishām Mosque with firm resolve but then withdrew.