Qasiyun, and the people streamed to his funeral. He was one of the distinguished Shafiʿi scholars and jurists: after his father’s death he taught for many years at the outer Nāṣiriyyah Madrasa, and also at the Duidari ribāṭ (Sufi hospice) (1) inside Bab al-Faraj. He frequented the various colleges, lodged with us at the Najībiyyah Madrasa, and loved the Sunnah, understanding it well—may Allah have mercy on him.

At the beginning of Jumada al-Ula, Chief Judge Tāj al-Dīn (2) al-Shafiʿi was appointed shaykh of the Dar al-Hadith in the madrasa that had just opened in Darb al-Qali (3). The building had been the residence of its founder, Jamal al-Din ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn ʿIsa al-Tadmari, who had been tutor to Emir Ṭāz. In it he established a class for the Hanbalis and appointed as their instructor Shaykh Burhān al-Din Ibrahim ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (4). The lesson was duly held and some Hanbalis attended, after which events ensued whose full account would be lengthy.

The deputy of the sultanate summoned the Hanbali witnesses to the session, separated each one, and asked how he had testified in the original register that had been produced against them. Their statements conflicted, the discrepancies were recorded, and they diverged sharply from what they had originally attested; many people criticized them. Shortly afterward numerous debts owed by the household of Ṭāz to the founder, Jamal al-Din al-Tadmari, came to light. The Maliki judge was asked to annul the ruling delivered by the Hanbali, but he hesitated.

On Monday the twenty-first of the month, a royal decree was read ordering the dismissal of the agents stationed at the doors of the four judicial benches, and they were accordingly relieved of duty.

In Jumada al-Akhir Shaykh Shams al-Din (5), head of the Hanbalis in al-Ṣāliḥiyyah and known as al-Tatari (6), died on Thursday the eighth (7). The funeral prayer was held for him after ʿAsr in the Muzaffari Mosque, and he was buried at the mountain’s foot; he was nearly eighty years old.

On the fourteenth of the same month a large session was convened in the Dar al-Saʿadah, attended by the four chief judges and a group of muftis,