for anyone else before him (1), nor have we heard that they were ever united for anyone after him down to our own day: the judgeship, the pulpit, and the office of shaykh al-shuyūkh (2).
On Monday, the twenty-fourth of Rabiʿ al-Awwal, al-Fath Ahmad ibn al-Baqqaqi (3) was executed in Egypt. The Mālikī judge Zayn al-Din Ibn Makhlūf passed judgment against him on the basis of what had been proven to him of the man’s disparagement (4) of the Sacred Law, his mockery of the unequivocal verses, and his setting the ambiguous ones in opposition to each other. It was reported that he declared lawful the prohibited—sodomy, wine, and the like—for the profligates among the Turks and other ignorant people who kept company with him (5). Yet he did possess learning, busied himself with study, and outwardly displayed an impressive bearing; his garments and dress were fine.
When he was brought to the window of the Kāmilīyah Dār al-Ḥadīth (6) between the Two Palaces, he sought help (7) from the judge Taqī al-Din Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd and said, “What do you know of me?” He replied, “[All that] (8) I know of you is virtue, but your case rests with Judge Zayn al-Din.” The judge thereupon ordered the governor to strike off his head. His head was severed, paraded through the city, and a proclamation was made: “This is the recompense of one who has insulted Allah and His Messenger.”
Al-Barzalī says in his History (9): “In mid-Rabiʿ al-Awwal a letter arrived from the region of Hama, sent by its judge, stating that in these very days in Barīn (10), one of Hama’s districts, enormous hailstones had fallen in the shapes of various creatures—beasts of prey, serpents, scorpions, birds, goats, women, and men with belts around their waists (11). The occurrence was formally authenticated before the judge of that locality, and the attestation was then forwarded to the judge of Hama.”
(1) In the printed edition: “li-ghayrihi” is prefixed.
(2) The copyist has added the following in the main text: “I said: After the author's death, a group of them gathered under Burhan al-Din ibn Jama‘a; after him, Sharaf al-Din and ‘Ala’ al-Din ibn Abi al-Baqa‘; and Shihab al-Din al-Ba‘uni. Before them, Ibn al-Qurashi recorded Shihab al-Din and Shams al-Din al-Ikhnayni, and Shihab al-Din ibn Hajjaj. Others also assumed these offices on the foundation laid by Badr al-Din ibn Jama‘a.” The same appears in al-Daramy (vol. II, p. 156).
(3) In the edition: “al-Thaqafi,” which is a corruption. The reading adopted here is correct. Al-Dhahabi notes in al-Mushabbihat: “al-Thaqafi occurs frequently, written with a shadda on the waw and two qafs: Majd al-Din … Ibn al-Buqaqi al-Hamawi … and his nephew Fath al-Din Ahmad ibn al-Buqaqi, who was executed for heresy in 701 AH.” See Ibn Hajar, Tabṣīr al-Muntahib I:228–229, and Ibn Nasir al-Din, Tawḍīḥ I (Bashar).
(4) In the edition: “tanqisu.”
(5) In the edition: “fihi.”
(6) “al-Kamaliyya”: a ḥadith hall in Egypt built by al-Malik al-Kamil al-Ayyubi, Abū al-Ma‘ali, who died in 635 AH. See his entry in Wafayāt al-A‘yān (vol. 5, p. 81).
(7) In the edition: “istaghath.” The biography of Ibn Daqiq al-‘Id will appear in Wafayāt for 702 AH.
(8) Omitted in the edition.
(9) ‘Ilm al-Din al-Barzali (al-Qasim ibn Muhammad), whose history Ibn Kathir transmitted and appended to his Ta’rikh Abī Shāma. His biography will appear in Wafayāt for 739 AH. His history survives in manuscript (a copy in Istanbul); the second part was edited by Dr. Mu‘in Sa‘dun al-‘Ifān, earning him a PhD.
(10) Yaqut reports: “The populace pronounce it Barin. It is a fine town between Aleppo and Hama to the west.”
(11) “al-Hawais”: plural hiyaasa (with kasra), the strap used to tighten a saddle-girth; the term has been extended to anything by which one secures his gear.