– In the year (750 AH), p. (108), al-Sakhawi, while describing the killing of Arkun Shah, writes: Ibn Kathir said, “A formal document was drawn up attesting that he had slit his own throat.”
– In the year (751 AH), p. (116), in his notice on al-Shams Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, he records: Ibn Kathir said, “In our day I know of no scholar whose worship is greater than his.”
– In the year (753 AH), p. (127), speaking of the caliph al-Muʿtaḍid billah, he relates: Ibn Kathir said, “A young man, handsome in appearance, graceful in speech, humble, quick of understanding, and pleasant in expression.”
– In the same year, p. (130), he says: The ḥafiẓ al-ʿImad Ibn Kathir stated, “He met al-Muʿtaḍid when he was with al-Ṣāliḥ during the incident of Baybugha Urus in Damascus, at which time he was the caliph there; he had performed Hajj the previous year but returned quickly to Egypt because of the discord.”
– In the year (762 AH), p. (182), he writes: Ibn Kathir reported that, in Muharram of that year, Ḥasan ibn al-Khayyāṭ was brought … and he transmits the entire account from him.
– In the year (768 AH), p. (219), he notes: Ibn Kathir also composed some verses on that matter.
– In the year (769 AH), p. (227), while discussing the plague, he says: Ibn Kathir said. In the same year, in his biography of the eminent grammarian Ibn ʿAqil (may Allah have mercy on him), he writes: Ibn Kathir said, “One of the Shafi‘i scholars and authorities on Arabic in Egypt, the author of many beneficial works; he enjoyed rank, dignity, and elegance, received numerous stipends, and was liberal in dress and food. He had performed the Rajab pilgrimage the year before, and while in Mecca he maintained the same deportment and level of expenditure.”
– In the year (773 AH), p. (252), while mentioning the appointment of the preacher Burhan al-Din Ibn Jamāʿah to the Shafi‘i judiciary in Egypt, he says: Ibn Kathir said, “Never in these times have we heard of an appointment more complete than this one, nor further removed from the suspicion of bribery.” In the same year, in his biography of al-Bahāʾ Abū Ḥāmid Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī al-Subkī, he states: Ibn Kathir said, “He was devout, given to worship, and a frequent pilgrim.”
– Concerning the events of the year (774 AH), he notes the completion of Ibn Rāfiʿ’s book al-Wafayāt in Jumada II. He then adds: “During Shaʿbān of that same year, 774 AH, the History of al-ʿImad Ibn Kathir came to an end; while weakened by illness, he dictated it to his son ʿAbd al-Raḥmān.”

From this review we conclude that the copy of al-Bidayah wa-l-Nihayah on which al-Sakhawi relied extends to Shaʿbān of the year (774 AH), not—as is commonly imagined—to (768 AH), let alone the claim that it ends at (738 AH).