and he later endowed it as a dār ḥadīth (house for ḥadith study) and a khānqāh (Sufi lodge). (1) He had moved to Damascus and resided for some time in that very house, which had formerly been known as the House of Ibn Qawām. He built it entirely of dressed stone. Al-Sāmari was extremely wealthy, courteous, and highly respected by the authorities; amiable in company, he composed polished verses and produced striking literary innovations. He died (2) on Monday, the eighteenth of Shaʿbān—[in his own residence; the funeral prayer was performed for him at the ʿAṣr prayer in the Umayyad Mosque, after which he was returned to his house and buried there—may Allah have mercy on him] (3).

While in Baghdad he had enjoyed the favor of the vizier Ibn al-ʿAlqamī and had lauded the caliph al-Mustaʿṣim (4), who rewarded him with an elegant black robe of honor. Later he came to Damascus during the reign of al-Nāṣir, ruler of Aleppo, and was similarly favored there. Some courtiers then maligned him, so he composed against them a rajaz poem that opened the way for reprisals, whereupon the king (6) confiscated from them (5) twenty thousand dinars. From that time on they held him in great esteem and sought his mediation to achieve their aims. He also composed an ode in praise (7) of the Prophet ﷺ, and the ḥadith master al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dimyāṭī recorded some of his poetry.

The benefactor of the Nafīsiyyah (8) located at the main Rasīf was the eminent Nafīs al-Dīn Abū al-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Salāmah (9) ibn ʿAlī ibn Ṣadaqah, originally of Ḥarrān and later of Damascus. He was one of the court-appointed witnesses (10) in Damascus and, at one time, superintendent of the Orphans’ Department. A man of substantial means, he was born in 628 AH, attended ḥadith sessions, and endowed his house as a dār ḥadīth. He died (11) on Saturday, four hours after noon, the fourth of Dhu al-Qaʿdah, and was buried at the foot of Mount Qāsiyūn on Sunday morning, after the funeral prayer had been performed for him in the Umayyad Mosque (12).