On Thursday, the 3rd of Dhu al-Qaʿdah, the funeral prayer was performed for Shaykh Zayn al-Din ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn (1) Taymiyyah, the brother of Shaykh Taqī al-Din—may Allah Most High have mercy on them both.

On Saturday, the 12th of the same month, Shaykh ʿAlī (2) al-Qaṭanānī passed away in Qaṭanā (3). In recent years his reputation had spread: a group of peasants and youths who followed the ṭarīqah of Aḥmad al-Rifāʿī attached themselves to him; his stature increased, his name circulated widely, and leading figures visited him on several occasions. He used to hold samāʿ gatherings in the manner of others like him, and some of his followers displayed spurious signs and fabricated “spiritual states.” For this he was censured: if he was unaware of their conduct, he was ignorant, and if he approved of it, he was like them. Allah—subḥānahu wa-taʿālā—knows best.

Toward the end of that month—I mean Dhu al-Ḥijjah, from the ʿĪd onward—the Malik al-Umara devoted himself to the construction of the congregational mosque he was building beneath the Citadel on the site of Tall al-Mustaqīn (4). The buildings that had stood there were demolished, carts were put to work, and large quantities of stone were taken from all parts of the city. Most of the stone came from the square belonging to the Egyptians, beneath the minaret at the top of the Kattān ascent (5); many blocks were procured there, while additional stone was quarried from Mount Qāsiyūn and transported on camels and other means.

By the close of that year—that is, 747 AH—the price of a gharrārah of wheat had reached two hundred, and at times even more. Truly, to Allah we belong and to Him we return.

[Then entered the year 748 AH]

The new year dawned with al-Malik al-Muẓaffar Amīr Ḥājjī, son of al-Malik al-Nāṣir Muḥammad ibn Qalāwūn, reigning as sultan over Egypt, Syria, the Two Holy Sanctuaries, and beyond. His deputy in Egypt was Emir Sayf al-Dīn Aruqṭāy (6), and the judges of Egypt were the very same men who had served the previous year.