That same year, the judge Sharaf al-Din al-Barzi (1) of Hama performed the Hajj.

[In Dhu al-Hijjah a great fire broke out near the Zahiriyyah Library, beginning in the bakery opposite it, known as the Sufi Bakery (2). Allah, however, was gracious and checked its harm and its flying sparks.] (3)

I add: In this very year we came from Bosra to Damascus after my father’s death. Our first lodging was in Darb Saffun (4), also called Darb Ibn Abi al-Hayja, in the Old Goldsmiths’ Quarter by the Toyuriyyun (5). We ask Allah for a good end and a blessed conclusion. Amin.

Among the notable people who died that year were:

• The amir Rukn al-Din Baybars, the Ajami al-Salihi (6), known as al-Jaliq. He had been head of the Jimdariyya guard shift (7) in the days of al-Malik al-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub, and al-Malik al-Zahir later appointed him an amir. One of the great men of state and extremely wealthy, he died at Ramla while attending to his iqtaʿ there in mid-Jumada al-Awwal. His body was taken to Jerusalem, where he was buried.

• Shaykh Salih al-Ahmadi al-Rifaʿi (8), shaykh of al-Munaybiʿ (9). The Tatars honored him when they entered Damascus, and when Qutlushah, the Tatar deputy, arrived he stayed in the shaykh’s house. It was he who said to Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah during their debate (10) in the palace: “Our wares sell only among the Tatars; under the Sharia they do not.”

[Then the year 708 AH began.] It opened while the caliph al-Mustakfi, the sultan al-Malik al-Nasir Muhammad ibn al-Mansur Qalawun, and their deputies and judges in Egypt and Syria were the same as those mentioned for the previous year, and Shaykh Taqi al-Din had been released from prison. People flocked to him for visits, study, legal consultation, and other purposes.