He was born toward the end of 613 AH, and his first audition of ḥadīth took place in 632 AH at Alexandria. He listened abundantly to the shaykhs, journeyed far and wide, travelled throughout the lands, acquired knowledge, gathered it and preserved it. Yet he never withheld it nor was he miserly; rather, he gave freely, authored works, and spread learning. He held several posts in Egypt, and the people benefited from him immensely. Among his writings is a work entitled Muʿjam li-Mashāyikhih (A Dictionary of His Teachers), containing the names of more than 1,300 shaykhs whom he met in Syria, the Ḥijāz, al-Jazīrah, Iraq, and Egypt; it consists of two volumes (1). He also compiled al-Arbaʿūn al-Mutabāyinah al-Isnād (The Forty Traditions with Divergent Chains of Transmission) and other works. He produced a highly useful book on al-Ṣalāh al-Wusṭā (the Middle Prayer), a treatise on Ṣiyām Sittati Ayyām min Shawwāl (Fasting the Six Days of Shawwāl) in which he excelled and provided material not previously brought together, a book entitled al-Dhikr wa’l-Tasbīḥ ʿAqība’l-Ṣalawāt (Remembrance and Glorification after the Prayers), and al-Tasallī wa’l-Ightibāṭ bi-Thawāb man Yuqaddim min al-Afrāṭ (Consolation and Rejoicing in the Reward for Children Who Predecease Us) (2), along with many other fine and beneficial pieces.
He continued to dictate ḥadīth until death overtook him while he was fasting in a dictation session (3). He lost consciousness, was carried to his house, and died that very hour, on Sunday, the tenth (4) of Dhu’l-Qaʿdah, in Cairo. The next day he was buried in the cemetery of Bāb al-Naṣr, and his funeral was extremely well attended. May Allah have mercy on him.
[Then the year 706 AH began]
It commenced (5) with the same officials who had been mentioned for the previous year, and Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyyah was still imprisoned in the pit of the Citadel of the Mountain.
[The preacher of Damascus remained Burhān al-Dīn al-Fazārī after his uncle Shaykh Sharaf al-Dīn (may Allah have mercy on him), as has been explained. He had been compelled to take the pulpit a second time, but in Ṣafar Shaykh Kamāl al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī assumed charge of the Bādariyyah Madrasa, whereupon Shaykh Burhān al-Dīn excused himself from the pulpit and his madrasa was restored to him] (6).
On Wednesday a courier arrived bearing the decree appointing Shaykh Shams al-Dīn, the Imām of al-Kallāsah (7), to the office of preacher. That was in Rabīʿ al-Awwal. People congratulated him, but he displayed reluctance and claimed weakness. He could not assume the post immediately because the deputy of the sultanate was away hunting. When the deputy returned, permission was granted, and Shaykh Shams al-Dīn took up his duties on Friday, the twentieth of that month. The first prayer he led was the dawn prayer on Friday; thereafter he was robed in honour and delivered the sermon that same day.
On Wednesday, the eighteenth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, he also began to serve as deputy judge on behalf of Qāḍī Najm al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn