Then the year 761 AH began. At its opening the Sultan of the Muslims was al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ḥasan ibn al-Malik al-Nāṣir Muḥammad ibn al-Malik al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn, and the judges of Egypt and Syria were the same as those named in the preceding year.

The deputy-governor of Syria was Emir Sayf al-Dīn Asandamur, brother of Yalbughā al-Yaḥyāwī, while the chancery secretary (kātib al-sirr) was Qāḍī Amīn al-Dīn ibn al-Qalānsī.

At the very beginning of Muḥarram news reached us of the death of Shaykh Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn 1 al-ʿAlāʾī in the Holy City of Jerusalem on the night of Monday, the 3rd of Muḥarram. The funeral prayer was performed for him the next day in al-Masjid al-Aqṣā after ẓuhr, and he was buried in the cemetery of the former deputy of al-Raḥbah. He was sixty-six years of age. During his thirty-year residence in Jerusalem he had been professor at the Ṣalāḥiyya Madrasa and shaykh of the Tankiziyya Dār al-Ḥadīth 2. He wrote, compiled, collected, and produced many works; he had an unmatched command of both elevated and common transmission chains and of extracting individual fascicles and rare benefits. He was also highly proficient in jurisprudence, linguistics, Arabic, and literature. His handwriting was weak, yet his copy was sound and precise in passages that posed difficulties. He authored several compositions 3, and I was informed that he endowed them to the Sumaysāṭiyya khānqāh 4 in Damascus. After him, the chair of instruction at the Ṣalāḥiyya 5 and its supervision were assumed by the preacher Burhān al-Dīn ibn Jamāʿah 6, who already possessed a dated deed of delegation from the deceased.

On Thursday, the 6th of Muḥarram, the superintendent of charitable endowments, Ibn Bahādur al-Sinjārī 7, was placed under guard and a formal writ was issued against him.