• The righteous, devout, and ascetic shaykh: ʿAbd Allah (1) ibn Musa ibn Ahmad al-Jazari, who resided in the shrine (2) of Abu Bakr within the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. He was one of the great saints—blessed and virtuous—marked by tranquility and dignity. A man of extensive reading, he possessed keen insight and sound judgment (3). He was constant in attending the gatherings of Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, from whose words he would transmit and comprehend many points that even senior jurists found beyond their reach (3). He passed away on Monday, the twenty-sixth of Safar; the funeral prayer was performed in the mosque and he was buried at Bab al-Saghir. His funeral was large and well regarded.

• The venerable, long-lived shaykh: the pious Taqi al-Din (4) Ibn al-Saʿigh, the Egyptian Qur’an-reciter of the Shafiʿi school—Abu ʿAbd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Khaliq ibn ʿAli ibn Salim ibn Makki—who was the last remaining of the masters of the reciters. He died in Safar and was buried in al-Qarafa; his funeral, too, was thronged. He reached nearly ninety years of age, lacking but a single year. Many had recited to him, and he was among those whose life was long and whose deeds were good.

• The shaykh and imam [Ṣadr al-Din] (5): Abu Zakariyya Yahya (6) ibn ʿAli ibn Tammam ibn Musa al-Ansari al-Subki, a Shafiʿi. He studied hadith and excelled in the principles of jurisprudence and in fiqh. He taught at the Sayfiyya (7), a post later assumed by his nephew Taqi al-Din al-Subki, who would subsequently become Chief Judge of Syria.

• Al-Shihab Mahmud (8): the eminent ṣadr, shaykh, imam, and leading scholar, unrivaled master of the art of official prose, such that since al-Qadi al-Fadil (9) no one had equaled him in the craft of inshāʾ. He possessed qualities not even al-Fadil enjoyed, foremost among them his copious compositions and his many lengthy, eloquent, and graceful qaṣīdas.