near the Jusura Causeway; some even passed beyond it. We beseech Allah for a blessed conclusion in this world and the Hereafter. This account ends here, and Allah — glorified and exalted — knows best what is correct.

[Another Extraordinary Wonder]
On Tuesday, the twentieth of Shaʿbān, I was invited to the orchard of the eminent scholar Shaykh Kamāl al-Din ibn al-Sharīshī, head of the Shāfiʿī school. A group of distinguished figures attended, among them the celebrated scholar Shaykh Shams al-Din ibn al-Mawṣilī al-Shāfiʿī (1); the learned Imām Ṣalāḥ al-Din al-Ṣafadī (2), superintendent of the Bayt al-Māl; the eminent Imām Shams al-Din al-Mawṣilī al-Shāfiʿī; the illustrious Imām Majd al-Din Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Shīrāzī, a descendant of Shaykh Abū Isḥāq al-Fayrūzābādī (3) and one of the foremost linguists; the eloquent preacher Imām Ṣadr al-Din ibn al-ʿIzz al-Ḥanafī; and the learned Imām Nūr al-Din ʿAlī ibn al-Ṣārim, one of the notable Qurʾān-reciters and ḥadith scholars famed for their eloquence. They brought with them a little over forty volumes of the work al-Muntahā fī al-Lugha (The Ultimate in Philology) (4) by al-Tamīmī al-Barmakī (5), part of the Nāṣiriyya endowment (6). Shaykh Kamāl al-Din’s son, the scholar Badr al-Din Muḥammad, was also present.

We all gathered around him, each of us taking up one of those volumes. We then began asking him about the lines of poetry cited in the work as linguistic evidence. He would open to every verse and comment on it with clear and beneficial explanation. Those present and listening concluded that he had memorised the entire corpus of linguistic citations, missing only a very rare few. This is truly one of the most astonishing marvels and the pinnacle of grammatical mastery (7).

The Arrival of the Sultanate’s Deputy, Sayf al-Din Qashtamur (8)
In the early days of Ramaḍān, on Saturday morning (9), the chamberlains went before him and the full army accompanied him. He first proceeded to the Horse Market, where he was ceremonially mounted, then came and alighted at the Secret Gate, kissed the threshold, and walked on to the Dār al-Saʿāda with the people preceding him.

The very first matter he adjudicated was to command the crucifixion of the man who, only yesterday, had killed the governor of al-Ṣāliḥiyya while the latter was on his way to the Friday prayer. The murderer then fled; the people pursued him, and he killed another person and wounded others before they converged upon him and seized him. Once he had been crucified, they circled