was Sayf al-Din Bitkhas (1), and to the office vacated by Bitkhas was appointed the amir Jamal al-Din Aqush (2), who had previously served as deputy of al-Karak. The Friday khuṭbah was pronounced in al-Muzaffar’s name from the pulpits of Damascus and other cities, [the deputy sultan al-Afram and the judges being in attendance; the robes of honor and the diploma for the deputy sultan arrived on the nineteenth of Dhu al-Qaʿda] (3).
The deputy’s diploma was read aloud in the palace by the chief secretary, Qadi Muḥyi al-Din ibn Faḍl Allah (4), in the presence of the amirs, all of whom were wearing their robes of honor. On Saturday, the seventh of Dhu al-Qaʿda, al-Muzaffar rode forth clad in the black Caliphal robe of investiture and a round turban, the dignitaries of state proceeding before him in their robes, while the sahib Ḍiyaʾ al-Din al-Nashay (5) carried the Caliph’s charter for the sultan in a black atlas-silk pouch. Its opening words were:
“It is from Solomon, and it begins: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” (Q 27:30).
It is said that in Cairo he distributed nearly one thousand two hundred robes of honor, and the day was long remembered; [he enjoyed his good fortune for only a few brief days, as did his shaykh and al-Manbiji, after which Allah swiftly removed His favor from them] (6).
In the same year Ibn Jamaʿah (7) delivered the Friday sermon in the Citadel, and Shaykh ʿAlaʾ al-Din al-Qunawi (8) assumed the professorial chair at the Sharifiyyah (9).
Among the notable figures who died that year was the righteous shaykh ʿUthman al-Halbuni (10): originally from Upper Egypt, he resided for a time in the village of Halbun and in other
(1) In the printed edition: “Binkhas,” and likewise in Durr al-Kamina (vol. 1, p. 472). In Najum al-Zahira (vol. 8, p. 232) it reads “Binkhas,” matching the reading of manuscript A. He is Binkhas al-Mansuri—formerly governor of al-Rahba, then one of the emirs of Damascus, later appointed governor of Safad in 679 AH. He returned to Cairo and served as emir at the outset of Sultan Baybars’s reign, was imprisoned after revolting against al-Nasir, and died in al-Karak as a prisoner in 711 AH.
(2) Jamal al-Din Aqush al-Rumi al-Mansuri was among the leading commanders under al-Nasir. When Muzaffar Baybars came to power, he entered Baybars’s service, but his mamluks treacherously betrayed and assassinated him in 709 AH. He is not the same figure mentioned above; his obituary will appear in Wafayat Sukkha (709 AH).
(3) Not found in manuscript B.
(4) He is Yahya ibn Fadlallah, who alternated as secretary of the inner council between Damascus and Cairo; his obituary will be recorded in Wafayat for the year 738 AH.
(5) In the printed edition and in manuscript A it reads “al-Nasa’i.” We have preserved the reading of manuscript B. See Badai’ al-Zuhur (vol. 1, p. 423).
(6) Not found in manuscript B.
(7) He is Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Sa’d.
(8) He is Ali ibn Isma’il ibn Yusuf al-Qunawi; his obituary will be recorded in Wafayat for the year 729 AH.
(9) It was located near the Hara al-Ghuraba (Quarter of the Strangers). Al-Nu’aimi mentions it in Al-Daris (vol. 1, p. 316), and Badran in Munadamat al-Atlal (p. 109) notes that no spring or trace of this school remains.
(10) His biography appears in Durr al-Kamina (vol. 2, p. 442), which records his death in Baalbek, and in al-Shudhurat (vol. 6, p. 16); the account there agrees with the present one.
Note: In Barzah there is a tomb known as the tomb of Shaykh Uthman, and in Ma’raba a maqam bearing the same name, perhaps used as a resting place on the road between Halbun and Damascus and vice versa.