in the Egyptian dominions the amir Ḥusām al-Dīn Abū Bakr ibn al-Najībī—may Allah brighten his face—who at that time was residing in Egypt. I myself had seen in his possession a fatwa bearing the handwriting of Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyyah, Shaykh Kamāl al-Dīn Ibn al-Zamlakānī, and others, declaring this innovation invalid; Allah then brought the matter to fruition, and to Him belong praise and favor. This innovation had been firmly rooted among the people from about the year 450 AH until our own day, and countless jurists, judges, muftis, scholars, worshippers, amirs, ascetics, deputies of the sultanate, and others had endeavoured to abolish it, yet Allah did not grant success until this very year. We ask Allah to prolong the life of this sultan, that the ignorant—into whose minds it has settled (1) that if these extra lamps are not lit in any given year the reigning sultan will die—may come to realize that this notion has no reality, no proof whatsoever: it is nothing but sheer fancy and imagination.

At the beginning of Ramadan an unusual event occurred, the like of which had not happened for a long time in matters concerning the jurists and the schools. Ibn al-Nāṣih (2) al-Ḥanbalī of al-Ṣāliḥiyyah passed away; he had held one half of the teaching chair at the Ṣāḥibiyya (3), the Ḥanbalī madrasa in al-Ṣāliḥiyyah, while the other half belonged to Shaykh Sharaf al-Dīn (4), son of the qadi Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ḥanbalī, head of the Ḥanbalīs in Damascus. Shaykh Sharaf al-Dīn sought a decree granting him the other half, for he already possessed an earlier appointment from Qadi ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ibn al-Munajjā al-Ḥanbalī. Chief Judge Jamāl al-Dīn al-Mardāwī al-Ḥanbalī opposed him, appointing his own deputy, Shams al-Dīn ibn Mufliḥ, to the post and himself lecturing there that morning. The remaining three judges, accompanied by the aforementioned Shaykh Sharaf al-Dīn, then went to the deputy of the sultanate and presented the case. He issued an order in favor of Sharaf al-Dīn, and the judges, together with some ushers, rode with him to the madrasa. Scholars and notables assembled; Shaykh Sharaf al-Dīn delivered the lesson, disseminated much virtue, and the people rejoiced.

In Shawwāl, among those who set out for the pilgrimage that year was the deputy of the Egyptian territories and administrator of its dominions, the amir Sayf al-Dīn Baybughā (5) al-Nāṣirī, accompanied by a group of amirs. Once the pilgrims had departed, however, a number of amirs rose against his brother, the amir Sayf al-Dīn Manjak—minister of the realm, master of the dār al-ustādāriyya, the gate of petitions in their government, to whom those with needs would journey bearing gold and gifts—and they seized him. The courier post reached Syria toward the end of that month with this news (6).