al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah II Ahmad ibn al-Mustakfi
Cairo caliph [741–753]; his father's deed — witnessed by forty just men of Qus — was read in al-Mansur Abu Bakr's council of 11 Dhu'l-Hijja 741, Ibrahim deposed and Ahmad hailed as al-Hakim II. Ibn Fadl Allah: 'imam of our age, cloud of our Egypt — he revived the caliphate's rites and reunited his scattered house'.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo · no. 5 in the chain · 1341–1352 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Al-Dhahabi gradually loses his sight, 743/1342
A film settled over al-Dhahabi's eyes: he would recognise it, and the sight weakened little by little until it was wholly gone, and he grew angry when told 'if your eye were needled you would see', for it was not a needlable cataract. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, after Abu al-Fida and Umar ibn al-Wardi, dates the blindness to 743, or by others to 741; even so he kept at his studies night and day and kept composing.
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Al-Subki summoned to Egypt, then restored at Damascus, 743/1342
In Jumada I 743 the post brought a summons calling chief qadi Taqi al-Din al-Subki to Egypt as its judge; he rode out with the courier while the notables saw him off. He returned to his bench in Damascus on Sunday 8 Rajab carrying a decree of the khitaba as well — but the populace rioted in favour of their own khatib Ibn al-Jalal until al-Subki ceded the pulpit to him and kept the judgeship.
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Reconciliation between al-Subki and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, 16 Jumada II 750
On Tuesday 16 Jumada II 750, in the chief qadi's orchard, Taqi al-Din al-Subki and Shams al-Din Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya were reconciled through the mediation of the amir Sayf al-Din ibn Fadl, lord of the Arabs. Al-Subki had taken exception to Ibn Qayyim's frequent fatwas on the divorce question espoused by his teacher Ibn Taymiyya, and there had been extended disputes between them.
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Al-Subki teaches at the Shamiyya al-Barraniyya, 21 Dhu al-Hijja 745
On Sunday 21 Dhu al-Hijja 745 chief qadi Taqi al-Din al-Subki gave his first lesson at the Shamiyya al-Barraniyya madrasa in Damascus in succession to Shams al-Din ibn al-Naqib, before an assembly of qadis, notables, amirs and scholars.
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Battle of Kairouan (1348)
Draft card for Battle of Kairouan (1348); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Oued Ourk (1349)
Draft card for Battle of Oued Ourk (1349); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Tinramrin (1350)
Draft card for Battle of Tinramrin (1350); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Death of Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi at Damascus, 748/1348
Al-Dhahabi died at Damascus on the night of 3 Dhu al-Qa'da 748 — the Sunday-Monday night corresponding to 4 February 1348 as al-Subki and al-Suyuti report — and was buried at the Bab al-Saghir; he had been blinded some years before. Among his most famous pupils was Abd al-Wahhab al-Subki, author of the Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Kubra, whose father Taqi al-Din al-Subki was his most intimate friend.
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Death of Ibn Fadl Allah al-Umari at Damascus, 749/1349
Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Fadl Allah died at Damascus of a quartan fever on the Day of Arafa, 9 Dhu al-Hijja 749 (1 March 1349), leaving Masalik al-Absar, al-Ta'rif bi'l-Mustalah al-Sharif, essays and verse; al-Dhahabi records his many literary works and long reach in the two crafts and skill in the two rhetorics.
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Death of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya at Damascus, buried at Bab al-Saghir, Rajab 751/1350
Shams al-Din Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya died at Damascus on 13 Rajab 751, and his funeral was very crowded. The Encyclopaedia of Islam gives the variant 23 Rajab 751/26 September 1350 and adds that he was buried beside his mother in the Bab al-Saghir cemetery; his son Jamal al-Din Abd Allah (d. 756) succeeded him in teaching at the Sadriyya.
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The fall of al-Jazira al-Khadra and the breaking of the fleet
The fall of Algeciras and the straits disaster: Abu al-Hasan al-Marini built great fleets for the jihad and answered Andalus's summons in person at Ceuta, but countless Christian ships barred the crossing until they took the Green Island and broke his fleet utterly — the loss he himself reported in his letter to Sultan al-Salih of Egypt and the Hijaz.
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Fifth Siege of Gibraltar
Draft card for the Fifth Siege of Gibraltar in 1349–1350, Alfonso XI's campaign against the Marinids; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Ibn al-Mulaqqin's own quest for hadith under al-Rahbi and Mughaltay, about 747/1346
Ibn al-Mulaqqin set out after hadith on his own account and heard much from the hafizes of his age — Ibn 'Abd al-Da'im and others of his circle — and graduated in hadith under Zayn al-Din al-Rahbi (d. 749) and 'Ala' al-Din Mughaltay, copying a great deal from them, gathering the ajza' and hearing the big books, while also taking fiqh from the shaykhs of his time until he mastered the disciplines.
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Ibn Battuta named envoy to China
In 1342 the Delhi sultan Muhammad ibn Tughluq appointed Ibn Battuta his envoy to the Chinese emperor, after years at his court.
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Ibn Battuta returns to Fez
In November 1349 Ibn Battuta reached Fez, capital of the Marinid sultan Abu Inan, after sailing from Alexandria to Tunisia, Sardinia and Algiers.
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The Black Death takes Ibn Khaldun's parents in Tunis
In 1349 the Black Death struck Tunis and took both of Ibn Khaldun's parents.
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Ibn Qayyim's dispute with al-Subki over the contest stake, Muharram 746/1345
In Muharram 746/May-June 1345 Ibn Qayyim clashed with the Shafi'i chief qadi Taqi al-Din al-Subki over whether a race or shooting contest is lawful when each of the two competitors puts down a stake without a third party (the muhallil) who enters stakeless and so legitimizes the contest; following Ibn Taymiyya's doctrine, Ibn Qayyim held the muhallil unnecessary, and, summoned before the Shafi'i qadi al-qudat, he had to submit to the qadi's opinion. Ibn Hajar places the dispute in Rabi' I and records al-Subki's objection to his fatwa permitting a contest without a muhallil.
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Ibn Qayyim's inaugural lecture at the Sadriyya madrasa, 6 Safar 743/11 July 1342
On 6 Safar 743/11 July 1342 Ibn Qayyim gave his inaugural lecture at the Sadriyya madrasa, where he was to teach until his death. He taught at the Sadriyya and led prayer at the Jawziyya; he had read fiqh under al-Majd al-Harrani and Ibn Taymiyya and usul under al-Safi al-Hindi and Ibn Taymiyya.
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Ibn Rajab moves to Damascus with his father, 744
Ibn Rajab's father, the shaykh Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Rajab al-Baghdadi, moved with his children from Baghdad to Damascus in 744/1343, when Ibn Rajab was about eight years old; the father had already heard hadith from the masters of Baghdad before the move.
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Ibn Rajab hears Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and the shaykhs of Damascus, c. 750
As a boy in Damascus Ibn Rajab heard the leading scholars of his time: the editor of Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam counts Shams al-Din Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751) among his most prominent teachers, so his hearing him preceded Ibn Qayyim's death in 751. Among his early shaykhs were also Abu al-Rabi' Ali al-Baghdadi al-Hanbali (d. 742) and Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Maqdisi (d. 748).
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The Kairouan disaster
The greatest battle of the Marinid era: the Arabs of Ifriqiya — sons of Mihhal, the Ka'ub and Banu Sulaym — rose against Abu al-Hasan's army and set over themselves Ahmad ibn Hamza back from Alexandria; the sultan marched in the hajj days of 748 and routed them at the defile below Kairouan, but they regathered, turned and hemmed him in the city, broke his ranks and plundered his camp, while he escaped to Susa and sailed for Tunis as the Arabs with Ibn Abi Dabbus laid siege to the capital — until he abandoned Ifriqiya for the Maghreb, his son Abu Inan having seized the throne in his absence.
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Abu al-Hasan al-Marini's entry into Ifriqiya
The sultan Abu al-Hasan al-Marini marched in Safar 748 dragging the world behind him when news came of Sultan Abu Bakr al-Hafsi's and his heir's deaths; the lords of Ifriqiya's marches met him at Oran bearing homage in desire and awe, and he entered the capital in ceremony in Jumada II, the voices hushed and the commons stilled; Bejaia and Constantine submitted, their Hafsid princes pensioned off to the Maghreb, while the fugitive amir Abu Hafs was hunted down in the Hama country, slaughtered, and his head sent on.
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Reintegration of the Crown of Mallorca (1343)
Draft card for Reintegration of the Crown of Mallorca (1343); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Algeciras (1350)
Draft card for Siege of Algeciras (1350); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Caffa
Draft card for the Siege of Caffa in 1346, Janibeg the Golden Horde khan's blockade with the plague's spread; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Oran (1348)
Draft card for Siege of Oran (1348); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Oran (1349)
Draft card for Siege of Oran (1349); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Ibn al-Naqib licenses Taj al-Din al-Subki to give fatwas and teach, c. 745
Shams al-Din Ibn al-Naqib licensed Taj al-Din al-Subki to issue fatwas and teach before he turned twenty; he was eighteen years old when Ibn al-Naqib died.
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Al-Umari dismissed from the Damascus chancery, Safar 743/1342
Shihab al-Din was dismissed from the Damascus chancery on 3 Safar 743 (July 1342), his brother Badr al-Din Muhammad taking his place; he was held at the Fulkiyya four months, then summoned to Egypt over the many complaints against him until his brother Ala al-Din interceded and he returned to Damascus out of office — never to hold one again.
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The plague and the flight to Jerusalem, c. 748/1348
When the plague struck, Ibn Fadl Allah resolved on the hajj, then took his household to Jerusalem; his wife died there and he buried her and returned.
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The retirement years and the great works, 743-749/1342-1349
Al-Umari lived retired at Damascus from 743 until his death, and his great books were most likely the fruit of that leisure: the encyclopaedic Masalik al-Absar fi Mamalik al-Amsar in more than twenty volumes, al-Ta'rif bi'l-Mustalah al-Sharif on the chancery's order and correspondence, and a four-volume history of his family, the House of Umar — beside essays, ornate prose and much verse.