Shaykh ʿAlī (1) al-Marāwaḥī, attendant of Shaykh Asad al-Marāwaḥī al-Baghdādī, was a man of considerable nobility. He enjoined what is right, forbade what is wrong, had easy access to the deputies, and sent letters to the provincial governors that were readily accepted. The people held him in esteem. He was charitable, liberal with almsgiving, and kind to the needy (2); he also managed a respectable sum of money that was invested on his behalf. After a prolonged illness he died today; the noon funeral prayer was performed for him in the great mosque, after which he was carried to the foot of Mount Qāsiyūn—may Allah have mercy on him.

On the morning of Tuesday, 27 Shaʿbān, Emir Sayf al-Dīn Baydamur, who had formerly served as viceroy of Syria, arrived and lodged in his residence by the Fīrūz Minaret. After paying his respects to the Sultan’s deputy in the Dār al-Saʿāda, crowds of people came to greet him. Two tablakhānas were assigned to him, together with a stipend of one thousand and authority over the governors from Gaza to the furthest parts of Greater Syria. The King of the Emirs honored him lavishly, and the common people rejoiced greatly at his reinstatement (3).

The “Bukhariyāt” recitations were completed in the Umayyad Mosque and elsewhere, at several venues—six sittings each day—read before Shaykh ʿImād al-Dīn Ibn Kathīr. The first took place at the Ibn Hishām Mosque at dawn before sunrise, then “under the Eagle,” then in the Nūriyyah Madrasa; after the noon prayer in the Tankiz Mosque; then in the ʿIzzīyyah Madrasa; and finally in the kiosk belonging to Lady Asmāʾ, daughter of the vizier Ibn al-Salʿūs, until the call to the afternoon prayer. After ʿAsr a further sitting was held in the residence of the King of the Emirs, Amir ʿAlī, in the al-Qassāʿīn quarter, lasting almost until sunset. At the same time “Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim” was being read in the Hanbali miḥrāb inside Bāb al-Ziyāda, between the Qubbat al-Nasr and the Nūriyyah. We ask Allah—He is the Helper, the One who makes matters easy—for aid. The same pattern of recitation took place in several other locations, including the houses of emirs and others, and nothing like it had been witnessed in past years; praise and thanks belong to Allah.

On Tuesday, 10 Shawwāl, Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī (4) ibn Abī al-Hayjāʾ al-Karakī al-Shawbaki—later a Damascene Shafiʿi—passed away. He and I had studied together in the Qurʾān school and elementary classes, completing our first khatm in the year eleven. He grew up upright and chaste. He studied the seven canonical readings with Shaykh Badr al-Dīn ibn Sayḥān, though he did not finish the full khatm with him. He devoted himself to al-Nawawī’s “al-Minhāj,” reading much—indeed most—of it, copying and memorizing from it. Light-hearted in temperament, people loved him and enjoyed his company—may Allah have mercy on him. He had a firm command of the similar passages of the Qurʾān, recited frequently, prayed well, and spent the nights in worship. He read “Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī” with me at the Ibn Hishām shrine for several years and became proficient in it. His voice was powerful and his diction eloquent. He was later appointed shaykh of the Ḥalabiyyah in the Umayyad Mosque and lectured from several chairs along the northern wall. He was well regarded.