Shaykh Aḥmad al-Zur‘ī (1) entered the presence of Sultan al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ and petitioned him for numerous matters: the abolition of injustices and illicit taxes, the restoration of the ṭablkhāna (military drum corps) of Emir Nāṣir al-Dīn ibn Bakhtāsh, the release of several emirs imprisoned in the Citadel of Damascus, and other requests besides. The sultan granted every one of them, and the decrees issued in answer to the petition numbered a little over thirty.
Toward the end of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir the decrees requested by Shaykh Aḥmad arrived from al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ. All—or at least most—were ratified, and on Thursday, the last day of that month, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, son of al-Malik al-Kāmil, together with Emir Sayf al-Dīn Buluk (2), were released. Not long afterward, many of those edicts were re-examined and their execution was suspended.
During the same month a minaret was built outside Bāb al-Faraj, an old house was converted into a Ḥanafī madrasa and mosque, a public latrine was installed, and an open prayer-space was prepared for the people. All this was credited to Emir Sayf al-Dīn Tuqtamur (3) al-Khalīlī, formerly amīr ḥājib, who had also renovated the house that is still known by his name today in the Qaṣṣāʿīn quarter.
On the night preceding Monday, the 10th of Jumādā al-Ākhira, our colleague, the ḥadith scholar Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ṣadr al-Dīn Sulaymān al-Jaʿbarī (4)—son-in-law of Shaykh Jamāl al-Dīn al-Mizzī and father of Sharaf al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh, Jamāl al-Dīn Ibrāhīm, and others—passed away. He had served as a jurist in the madrasas and as a court witness beneath the public clocks and elsewhere. Gifted in the recitation of ḥadith and competent in Arabic, he also composed pleasing poetry. After being confined to bed for two days and part of a third, he died midway through the night in question. I was with him at the time of the late-evening prayer that night; he spoke and jested with me, for he was light-hearted—may Allah have mercy on him—then passed away during the remainder of the night, Allah’s mercy upon him. He had me testify to his repentance from all that incurs Allah’s displeasure—may He be exalted—and to his resolve to relinquish the office of legal witness as well. The funeral prayer was performed for him at noon on Monday, and he was buried in the Bāb al-Ṣaghīr cemetery beside his parents—may Allah be pleased with them.
On Friday, the 12th of Rajab, Judge ʿImād al-Dīn ibn al-ʿIzz al-Ḥanafī delivered the Friday sermon in the Tankiz Mosque outside Bāb al-Naṣr, after Shaykh Najm al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Dāwud al-Qaḥfāzī (5) had yielded the pulpit to him. The deputy of the sultanate, Emir Sayf al-Dīn Tuquzdamur, was also present with him in that mosque on that day (6).
On Friday, the 29th of Rajab, the eminent jurist and imam, Judge Jalāl al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn (7)