on Friday, the twenty-fifth of the month, they were driven out of the town to the trench lying outside Bāb al-Ṣaghīr. Yet the preferable course would have been to kill them all and burn their carcasses, lest their stench harm the populace—just as Imām Mālik ibn Anas ruled that the dogs of a particular town may be put to death for the public welfare whenever the ruler deems it expedient. This in no way contradicts the Prophet’s prohibition against killing the whole species of dogs (1). For that very reason ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān used to command in his sermons that dogs be killed and pigeons slaughtered (2).
[Then the year 746 began.]
The year opened while the sovereign of the Muslims over Egypt, Syria, the Two Holy Sanctuaries, the Aleppo region, and their dependencies was still al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ ʿImād al-Dīn Ismāʿīl ibn al-Nāṣir ibn al-Manṣūr, and the judges in Egypt and Syria remained those previously mentioned.
On Friday, the sixteenth of Muḥarram, the building of the mosque in Upper Mezza—which Emir Bahāʾ al-Dīn al-Marjānī (3) had rebuilt and founded, and whose father (4) had erected the al-Khayf Mosque at Minā—was completed. It is a handsome, spacious mosque that imparts a sense of ease and openness; may Allah accept it from its builder. The Friday congregational prayer was held there with a large and abundant gathering of the people of Mezza and others from the city, and I was the preacher (5)—to Allah belong praise and grace.
A discussion and debate then arose about whether the presence of a muhallil is a necessary condition in competitive contests. The occasion for this was that Shaykh Shams al-Dīn Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (6) had earlier composed a treatise supporting the view of Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyya on the question. Some Turks thereafter began issuing fatwas on its basis without ascribing the opinion to Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyya, so people assumed it to be Ibn Qayyim’s own view—one that conflicts with the four imams. Objections were therefore raised; the Shāfiʿī judge summoned him, and there was much discussion. The matter concluded with Shaykh Shams al-Dīn Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya declaring his agreement with the majority position (7).