al-Baʿlabakkī, who was known as Ibn al-Naqīb. He was buried in the Ṣūfiyya cemetery, having reached—and even surpassed—the age of seventy. He excelled in the science of Qur’an recitation, in grammar, morphology, and the Arabic language at large, and he possessed ability in jurisprudence and other disciplines. After his death, the post of shaykh of Qur’anic recitation at Umm al-Ṣāliḥ was entrusted to Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Labbān (1), while at the Turbah al-Ashrafiyyah the position went to Shaykh Amīn al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn al-Sallār (2).
The deputy of the Sultanate returned from the region of al-Raḥbah and Palmyra on Wednesday, 6 Shawwāl, accompanied by the troops who had marched with him in his campaign against the sons of Muhannā and their Bedouin kinsmen.
During the night preceding Sunday, the 10th, Shaykh Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khalīl (3) ibn Aybak—agent of the treasury and muwaqqiʿ al-dast (the official signatory of the court register)—passed away. The funeral prayer was held for him on Sunday morning in the congregational mosque, and he was interred in the Ṣūfiyya cemetery. He authored copiously on history, language, and literature; his poetry was outstanding, his learning wide-ranging. All told, he compiled, composed, and wrote nearly two hundred volumes.
On Saturday, the 10th, the judges and notables were assembled in Dār al-Saʿāda. They affixed their signatures expressing their consent that Chief Judge Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī assume the Friday pulpit in the Umayyad Mosque, and the secretary of the deputy of the Sultanate recorded the resolution.
On Sunday, the 11th, it was formally decided to dismiss the deputy-governor Sayf al-Dīn Qashtamur from the vice-regency of Damascus and to dispatch him to the vice-regency of Ṣafad. He lodged his family in the house of Ṭaybughā Ḥajjī in the Upper Quarter, while he himself set out from the hill of al-Mazzah on the road to Ṣafad (4).
The mahmal—the ceremonial palanquin—departed in company with the pilgrims, who were an immense throng, on Thursday, 14 Shawwāl.
On Thursday, 21 Shawwāl, Judge Amīn al-Dīn (5) Abū Ḥayyān—the nephew of Chief Judge Tāj al-Dīn al-Maslathī al-Mālikī, the husband of his daughter, and his general deputy in adjudication as well as in the bench and the classroom during his absences—was overtaken by sudden death.
Among the curious happenings toward the close of this month was the rumor, which spread among the womenfolk and many of the common people, that a man had seen in a dream: