In Dhu al-Ḥijjah the mosque that had stood in the middle (1) of the roadway between Bab al-Naṣr and Bab al-Jābiyah was demolished by judicial decree issued at the viceroy’s order. To its west a handsome new mosque was erected—better and more beneficial than the former one.

Among those of note who passed away this year were:

• The righteous, long-lived shaykh and head of the muezzins at the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, Burhān al-Din Ibrāhīm (2) ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Wānī. Born in 643 AH, he studied and transmitted hadith, possessed a pleasant voice and appearance, and was beloved by the common people. He died on Thursday, 6 Ṣafar, and was buried in the Bāb al-Ṣaghīr cemetery. Succeeding him in the post was his son, Amīn al-Din Muḥammad al-Wānī (3), a useful transmitter of hadith, who himself died some forty-odd days later—may Allah have mercy on them both.

• The accomplished, versatile calligrapher and copyist Bahāʾ al-Din Maḥmūd (4) ibn the Khaṭīb of Baʿlabakk, Muḥyī al-Din Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Sulamī. Born in 688 AH, he devoted himself to the craft and mastered it, surpassing all his contemporaries in manuscript copying and every branch of calligraphy. He was handsome, well-mannered, sweet-voiced, and warmly affable. He died on the last day of Rabīʿ al-Awwal and was buried in the cemetery of Shaykh Abū ʿUmar (may Allah have mercy on him).

• ʿAlāʾ al-Din al-Sanjārī, founder of the Dār al-Qurʾān by Bāb al-Naṭafāniyyīn to the north of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, ʿAlī (5) ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Maḥmūd. He was an upright, truthful merchant of comfortable means, ever quick to perform good deeds. He died in Cairo on the night of Thursday, 13 Jumada al-Ākhira, and was buried near the grave of Qāḍī Shams al-Din ibn al-Ḥarīrī (6).