Abū al-Maʿālī Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq (1) ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Muʾayyad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Ṭālib, the Abarqūhī, originally al-Hamdānī and later Egyptian. He was born in Abarqūh, a district of Shīrāz, in Rajab—or, it is said, Shaʿbān—of the year 615 AH. He heard a vast number of hadiths from many shaykhs, catalogues of his teachers were compiled, and he proved to be a fine shaykh, gentle in manner and steadfast in worship. He died in Mecca four days after the pilgrims had dispersed—may Allah have mercy upon him.
In the same year the ruler of Mecca, the noble Sharīf Abū Numayy Muḥammad (2) ibn al-Amīr Abī Saʿd Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Qatādah al-Ḥasanī—who had governed Mecca for forty years—passed away. He was patient and dignified, possessed of sound judgment, political acumen, intelligence, and noble character.
That year also saw the birth of this chronicle’s scribe (3), Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kathīr al-Qurashī al-Buṣrawī (4), the Shāfiʿī—may Allah pardon him; and Allah, exalted is He, knows best.
[Then the year 702 AH began.]
It commenced (5) with the same officials who had been mentioned for the year before.
On Wednesday, the second of Ṣafar, the island of Arwad near Antarsus (6) was captured. It had been one of the most harmful strongholds to the coastal population. Ships set sail from Egypt and were followed by the armies of Tripoli; by midday—praise be to Allah—the island had been taken. About two thousand of its inhabitants were killed and nearly five hundred taken captive (7). Its fall completed the liberation of the coastline, and Allah relieved the Muslims of the evil of its people.
On Thursday, the seventeenth of Ṣafar, a courier [from Egypt] (8) reached Damascus bringing news of the death of the Chief Judge Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd, together with a letter from the Sultan to the Chief Judge Ibn Jamāʿah (9). In it the Sultan praised, honoured, and exalted him, summoning him to his side so that he might resume the chief judgeship in Egypt as before. Ibn Jamāʿah therefore prepared to depart, and when he set out,