bound for Egypt to assume the office of Chief Judge of the Shafiʿi rite in Damascus, with the full consent of his maternal uncle, Chief Judge Tāj al-Dīn, who ceded the position to him.
On Thursday, the fifth of Rabiʿ al-Awwal, the bastion outside Bab al-Faraj on the bridge caught fire; some of the gate’s stones were scorched and loosened, widening the opening. The deputy of the sultanate, the grand chamberlain, the castle governor, a number of provincial officers, and others were present to oversee the extinguishing.
That same morning the river rose dramatically because of heavy rains in early Kanun al-Thani (January). The floodwaters completely swamped the Horse Market, reached the outskirts of Bab al-Faradis and the neighboring districts, smashed the wooden bridge by the Yalbugha Mosque, then rammed and broke the Zalabiyah bridge as well.
On Thursday the twelfth, the chief of chamberlains Qumāri (1) was dismissed from his post in the Dār al-Saʿādah; jurisdiction was taken from his hands and he went home with only a few attendants. Many people rejoiced, for he had long interfered with the rulings of the sacred law.
Toward the end of the month word spread of the death in Egypt of Judge Tāj al-Dīn (2) al-Munāwī, and of the appointment in his stead of Chief Judge Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn Abī al-Baqāʾ al-Subkī as judge of the armies there and as the sultan’s deputy, with a sufficient stipend assigned to him.
During these days Shaykh Sirāj al-Dīn al-Bulqīnī was placed in charge of issuing fatwas in the Dār al-ʿAdl together with Shaykh Bahāʾ al-Dīn Aḥmad, the son of the Chief Judge al-Subkī, in Syria. He too had already been appointed judge in Syria, as noted earlier. He later returned to Egypt, honored and provided for, while his brother Tāj al-Dīn went back to Syria. Alongside al-Bulqīnī they also appointed to the Dār al-ʿAdl a Ḥanafī shaykh named Shaykh Shams al-Dīn ibn al-Ṣāʿigh, who is likewise a Ḥanafī mufti (3).
On Monday, the seventh of Rabiʿ al-Awwal, Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn (4) Muḥammad, son of Shaykh Abū Bakr [ibn Muḥammad ibn] (5), passed away at their zāwiyah (6) at the foot of Mount