The Slaying of al-Muzaffar and the Accession of al-Nasir Ḥasan ibn al-Nasir
During the last ten days of Ramaḍan, a courier arrived from the deputy of Gaza to the deputy of Damascus bearing news that the Sultan, King al-Muzaffar Ḥajjī ibn al-Nasir Muḥammad, had been killed. A dispute had broken out between him and the emirs, who withdrew from him to Qubbat al-Naṣr. He came out to them with only a small escort; he was struck down on the spot and dragged to a cemetery there—indeed, it is said that he was cut to pieces. To Allah we belong and to Him we return (1).
Late on Friday, an emir reached us from Egypt to take the oath of allegiance for his brother, Sultan al-Nasir Ḥasan ibn Sultan al-Nasir Muḥammad ibn Qalawun. The drums of glad tidings were beaten in the Citadel of al-Manṣurah, and the entire city was festooned—praise be to Allah—by all who were able. By the dawn of Saturday the city stood fully adorned once more, thanks be to Allah for the unity of word and the harmony of hearts.
On Tuesday, the twentieth of Shawwal, Emir Fakhr al-Din Iyās, the governor-deputy of Aleppo, arrived under guard. He met the deputy (of Damascus) in Dār al-Saʿādah, after which he was taken into the Citadel and placed under tight restriction. It is reported that he entrusted his affair to the deputy of Damascus, empowering him to ratify whatever might be done with him. He remained confined in the Citadel for about a week, then was mounted on a courier’s horse and sent off to Egypt, and nothing further was heard of him (2).
On the night of Monday, the third of Dhu al-Qaʿdah, the great ḥāfiẓ, defender of Islam, and leading ḥadith scholar, Shams al-Din Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān al-Dhahabī, passed away in the mausoleum of Umm al-Ṣāliḥ. The noon funeral prayer for him was held on Monday in the Great Mosque of Damascus, and he was buried at Bāb al-Ṣaghīr. With him the era of the masters and guardians of ḥadith came to its close. May Allah have mercy on him (3).
On Sunday, the sixteenth of Dhu al-Qaʿdah, I attended at the mausoleum of Umm al-Ṣāliḥ—may Allah reward its founder—on behalf of Shaykh Shams al-Din al-Dhahabī. A number of distinguished jurists and some judges were present, and it was a well-attended lesson; praise and gratitude belong to Allah. In it I cited the ḥadith transmitted by Aḥmad, from al-Shāfiʿī, from Mālik, from al-Zuhri, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik, from his father, in which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
“Indeed, the soul of the believer is a bird that feeds among the trees of Paradise until Allah returns it to its body on the day He resurrects it.” (4)