—remained in that office for a long time, after which he was appointed judge of al-Karak, where he died on the twentieth of Dhu al-Ḥijjah. He had been born in 645 AH, had studied hadith and applied himself to learning, and was noted for his fine character and humility. He was the father of Shaykh Jamāl al-Dīn Ibn Qāḍī al-Zabadānī (1), instructor at the Ẓāhiriyyah—may Allah have mercy on him.
[Then came the year 726 AH]
The new year opened while the office-holders (2) were the same as those mentioned for the previous year, except that the chief secretary of Damascus, Shihāb al-Dīn Maḥmūd, had died and the post was given to his son, Ṣadr Shams al-Dīn (3).
In that year the merchants dealing in women’s tailored cloth moved their business from the dahsha (vestibule) of the Great Mosque to the dahsha of Sūq ʿAlī (4).
On Sunday, the eighth of Muḥarram (5), Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn Ibn Jahbal assumed the shaykhship of hadith at the Ẓāhiriyyah after the death of al-ʿAfīf Isḥāq (6). He resigned his teaching post at the Ṣalāḥiyyah in the Holy Jerusalem, chose Damascus instead, and the judges and notables were present at his inaugural session.
Early in the year the bathhouse built by the amir Sayf al-Dīn Jūbān was opened beside his residence near Dār al-Jāliq; it has two doors, one of them facing the Wazīr Mosque, and it proved beneficial to the public.
On Monday, the second of Ṣafar, al-Ṣāḥib Gibrīāl arrived from Egypt by express courier to resume, as was his custom (7), supervision of the state bureaus in Damascus; the “Little Karīm” was relieved of the post, and the people rejoiced at his coming.
On Tuesday morning, the eleventh of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, the head of Nāṣir ibn al-Sharaf Abū al-Faḍl ibn Ismāʿīl al-Haytī (8) was struck off in the Horse Market because of his unbelief, his contempt for and mockery of Allah’s verses, and his companionship with heretics such as al-Najm Ibn Khallikān, al-Shams Muḥammad al-Bājirbaqī, and Ibn al-Miʿmār al-Baghdādī—each of whom was notorious among the people for libertinism and open heresy (9).