It is also said concerning his lineage that he was al-Simāki, tracing back to Abū Dujāna Simāk ibn Kharsha (1)—and Allah knows best.
He was born on the night of Monday, 8 Shawwāl 666 AH. He heard a vast amount of learning and applied himself to study: in fiqh under Shaykh Tāj al-Dīn al-Fazārī (2), in uṣūl under Qāḍī Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn al-Zakī, in grammar under Badr al-Dīn Ibn Mālik (3), and under others besides. He excelled, amassed knowledge, and surpassed his contemporaries in the school; he carried off the palm of precedence thanks to a keen, ever-wakeful mind, a style more delectable than anything customary, and a script fresher than the blossoms of the valleys.
He taught in several madrasas in Damascus (4) and held a number of senior posts: oversight of the royal treasury, supervision of the Nūrī hospital, the Diwān of al-Malik al-Saʿīd, and the administration of the Bayt al-Māl.
He left behind useful annotations, commendable and judicious preferences, and felicitous debates. Among his writings are a large section of al-Nawawī’s commentary on al-Minhāj, a volume refuting Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyya on the question of divorce, and other works.
As for his public lectures, I have never heard anyone teach better than he did—his phrasing sweeter, his exposition clearer, his cautions more precise, his mind sounder, his inspiration stronger, and his composition more elegant.
He lectured in the Shāmiyya Barrāniyya, the ʿAdhrāwiyya, the Ẓāhiriyya Jawwāniyya, the Rawāḥiyya, and the Masrūriyya, giving each institution its due; indeed, each lesson almost eclipsed the one before it in beauty and eloquence. The number of lessons and the multitude of jurists and scholars never overawed him (5); rather, the larger the gathering and the more eminent the scholars, the fresher, more brilliant, sweeter, more sincere, and more eloquent the lesson became.
When he later assumed the judgeship of Aleppo, together with its many madrasas, he treated them in the same manner, spreading virtue to all its people, who heard learning that neither they nor their fathers had ever heard.
He was then summoned to Egypt to be appointed over the Syrian provinces (6)—the abode of the Prophetic sunnah—but death overtook him before he reached it. He fell ill while travelling by the postal relay for nine days; the illness was then followed by the burning dysentery known as ḥarrāq al-ḥammām (7), and he passed away at dawn on Wednesday.