al-Mustakfi I
al-Mustakfi I, the caliph of the Abbasid of Cairo caliphate, ruling 1303–1340 CE.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo · no. 3 in the chain · 1303–1340 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Al-Dhahabi composes Tarikh al-Islam and his great compilations, c. 730/1330
Al-Dhahabi composed his greatest work, Tarikh al-Islam, down to the year 700 on the model of Ibn al-Jawzi's al-Muntazam, in seventy decadal 'classes', pairing each year's events with the obituaries of its dead. He abridged it six times — among them Siyar A'lam al-Nubala', Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, al-Ibar and Duwal al-Islam — and wrote on rijal Mizan al-I'tidal, al-Mushtabih, besides extracting his great, small and select Mu'jam of his hadith teachers.
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Al-Dhahabi, professor of hadith at Umm al-Salih and al-Nafisiyya, c. 710/1310
Al-Dhahabi held the professorship of hadith at the turba Umm al-Salih in Damascus and at the al-Nafisiyya madrasa, having received his licence to teach from Abu Zakariyya ibn al-Sayrafi, Ibn Abi al-Khayr, al-Qasim al-Irbili and others. He was unable to succeed his teacher al-Mizzi at the al-Ashrafiyya madrasa in Damascus because its founder had stipulated a particular law school for the professor of tradition.
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Shaykh of the Ashrafiyya and Nuriyya hadith schools, Damascus, 17 Rabi' I 740
On Wednesday 17 Rabi' I 740 chief qadi Taqi al-Din al-Subki took up the shaykhhood of the Ashrafiyya hadith school in Damascus in succession to the hafiz Jamal al-Din al-Mizzi, and also assumed the Nuriyya hadith school in place of al-Mizzi's son.
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Al-Subki teaches at the Mansuriyya, Cairo, 723/1323
In the spring of 723 AH the Shafi'i scholar Taqi al-Din al-Subki took over the teaching post at the Mansuriyya madrasa in Cairo from the qadi Jamal al-Din al-Zar'i, who had moved to Damascus.
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Al-Subki becomes chief qadi of Damascus, 739/1339
In 739 AH Taqi al-Din al-Subki came from Egypt as judge of Damascus and its districts; the people rejoiced at his learning, piety and honesty. He lodged at the Adiliyya al-Kubra as his predecessors had, taught at the Ghazzaliyya and the Atabakiyya, and succeeded the late chief qadi Jalal al-Din Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Qazwini. He held the bench about seventeen years.
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Al-Subki's journey to Damascus and the Pilgrimage, c. 710/1310
After his studies in Cairo, al-Subki travelled to Damascus and performed the Pilgrimage, then returned to Egypt to teach at the Mansuriyya madrasa beside the mosque of Ibn Tulun; Ibn Kathir records that he journeyed to Syria, studied on his own, wrote and taught.
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Shaykh of Dar al-Hadith al-Zahiriyya, Cairo, Shawwal 723
In Shawwal 723 al-Subki took up the shaykhhood of the Zahiriyya hadith school in Cairo after Zaki al-Din Abd al-Azim ibn Sharaf al-Din al-Dimyati; the post was taken from him in Dhu al-Qa'da for Fath al-Din Ibn Sayyid al-Nas al-Ya'mari.
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Battle of al-Riyyas
Draft card for the Battle of al-Riyyas in 1329, the Zayyanid victory over the Hafsids near Tunis; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Amroha
Draft card for the Battle of Amroha in 1305, the Delhi Sultanate's victory over the Mongols; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Ania (1304)
Draft card for Battle of Ania (1304); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Cibistra (1304)
Draft card for Battle of Cibistra (1304); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Dimbos
Draft card for the Battle of Dimbos in 1303, Osman I's first great victory over the Byzantines near Nicomedia; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Fajj al-Naam (1318)
Draft card for Battle of Fajj al-Naam (1318); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Guadalhorce (1326)
Draft card for Battle of Guadalhorce (1326); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Jaghatu
Draft card for Battle of Jaghatu; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Pelekanon
Draft card for the Battle of Pelekanon in 1329, Orhan's victory over Andronikos III that opened the road to Nicaea and Nicomedia; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Qara Darra
Draft card for Battle of Qara Darra; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Teba
Draft card for the Battle of Teba in 1330, Douglas and his companions' death at Granadan hands in Alfonso IV's campaign; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Temzezdekt
Draft card for the Battle of Temzezdekt in 1327, the Marinid victory in the siege of Tlemcen; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Irtysh River (1306)
Draft card for Battle of the Irtysh River (1306); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Vega of Granada
Draft card for the Battle of the Vega of Granada in 1319, the Castilian army's annihilation by the Granadans; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Vashlovani (1303)
Draft card for Battle of Vashlovani (1303); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Vega de Pagana (1339)
Draft card for Battle of Vega de Pagana (1339); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Birth of Taj al-Din al-Subki in Cairo, c. 727/1327
Abd al-Wahhab ibn Ali ibn Abd al-Kafi ibn Ali ibn Tamam — Taj al-Din Abu al-Nasr al-Subki al-Ansari al-Khazraji al-Shafi'i — was born in Cairo in 727, 728 or 729 AH (c. 1327–1329 CE); al-Dhahabi's Mu'jam al-Saghir gives 728.
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Capture of Tunis (1329)
Draft card for the capture of Tunis in 1329, a clash in the struggle for Ifriqiya among the Marinids, Zayyanids and Hafsids; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Conquest of Bursa
The Ottomans blockaded Bursa for many years — al-Salabi has Osman taking it in 717/1317 after a hard struggle with its commander — until the starved city surrendered on 2 Jumada I 726/6 April 1326 and paid a heavy tribute; the Byzantine commander was allowed to leave for Constantinople while his chief adviser, responsible for the surrender, stayed with the Ottomans. Bursa then served as the main capital of the Ottoman state from 726/1326 to 805/1402.
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Death of Ibn al-Tiqtaqa, 709/1309
Safi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ali, known as Ibn al-Tiqtaqa, author of al-Fakhri, died in 709 AH as al-Dhahabi's source list to the Tarikh al-Islam records; al-Zirikli in al-A'lam gives only 1302 CE, the year the book was composed.
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Djinguereber mosque built at Timbuktu
On Mansa Musa's return from the hajj the Andalusian architect Abu Ishaq al-Sahili came with him and built the Djinguereber mosque at Timbuktu about 1327.
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First Siege of Gibraltar
Draft card for the First Siege of Gibraltar in 1309, the Castilian capture of the Rock from the Marinids; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Fourth Siege of Gibraltar
Draft card for the Fourth Siege of Gibraltar in 1333, the Marinid recapture of the Rock; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Ibn al-Mulaqqin is born at Cairo, Rabi' I 723/March 1323
Siraj al-Din Abu Hafs 'Umar ibn 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-Ansari, Andalusi by origin then Cairene — the future Ibn al-Mulaqqin — was born at Cairo on Saturday 14 Rabi' I 723. His father Nur al-Din 'Ali had left al-Andalus for the land of the Turks, taught its people the Qur'an and earned good money there before coming with him to settle at Cairo.
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Orphaned, the boy is raised in al-Mulaqqin's house, about 724/1324
The boy's father died when 'Umar was one year old, entrusting him to the shaykh Sharaf al-Din 'Isa al-Maghribi — 'al-Mulaqqin', the Qur'an repetition-teacher of the Tulunid mosque — who married the boy's mother and raised him, so that he came to be known as Ibn al-Mulaqqin after him.
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Qur'an, the 'Umda and first hearings at Cairo, about 733/1333
His stepfather al-Mulaqqin taught him the Qur'an then the 'Umda, and meant to school him on Imam Malik's madhhab until one of Ibn Jama'a's sons said: teach him the Minhaj. He did, and had him hear the two hafizes Ibn Sayyid al-Nas and Qutb al-Din al-Halabi, while the hafiz al-Mizzi and others of Damascus, Egypt and Aleppo gave him ijazas. Among those he heard was Abu l-Fath Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, who died in 734.
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Hindushah ibn Sanjar translates al-Fakhri into Persian, 723-4/1323-4
A Persian translation of al-Fakhri by Hindushah ibn Sanjar made in 723-4/1323-4, entitled Tajarib al-salaf, indicates the title of Ibn al-Tiqtaqa's work as Munyat al-fudala' fi tawarikh al-khulafa' wa-l-wuzara' — probably a later edition of the historical section of the Fakhri; a Kitab al-Ghaya is also mentioned by Ibn al-Fuwati in Talkhis Majma' al-adab.
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Ibn Battuta completes his first pilgrimage
In 1326 Ibn Battuta completed the pilgrimage, having come through Egypt and Syria with a caravan to Mecca; he then crossed the desert to Iraq.
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Ibn Battuta sets out for the pilgrimage
In 1325, aged 21, Ibn Battuta left Tangier on the pilgrimage to Mecca, the start of his travels.
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Birth of Ibn Habib al-Halabi at Damascus, Sha'ban 710/early 1311
Al-Hasan ibn 'Umar ibn al-Hasan ibn Habib, Badr al-Din al-Halabi, was born at Damascus in Sha'ban 710; his father was appointed muhtasib of Aleppo, and the boy moved with him, grew up there and took his nisba from the city.
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Ibn Kathir's compilations: al-Bidaya wa'l-Nihaya and his other works, about 738/1338
Ibn Kathir gave himself to hadith, reading its texts and men: he compiled the Tafsir, began a large book of ahkam left unfinished, compiled the history al-Bidaya wa'l-Nihaya on the model of Ibn al-Athir's al-Kamil — closing it with the events of 738 — wrote the Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya, critiqued the hadiths of Adillat al-Tanbih and of Ibn al-Hajib's Mukhtasar, began a commentary on al-Bukhari, and abridged Ibn al-Salah's 'ulum al-hadith with additions of his own; among his books are the Jami' al-Masanid in eight volumes, al-Ijtihad fi talab al-jihad and al-Takmil on rijal in five volumes; his works travelled the lands in his lifetime.
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Ibn Kathir moves to Damascus and grows up there, about 709/1309
Al-Zirikli says he moved with his father to Damascus in 709; Ibn Hajar records that his father died in 703 and that the boy grew up in Damascus, hearing from Ibn al-Shihna, Ibn al-Zarrad, Ishaq al-Amidi, Ibn 'Asakir, al-Mizzi and Ibn al-Raddi among others, with ijazas from Egyptian scholars.
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Ibn Kathir attaches himself to Ibn Taymiyya and is tried on his account, about 726-728/1326-1328
Ibn Kathir took knowledge from Shaykh al-Islam Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, became filled with love for him and was tried on his account; Ibn Taymiyya's last trials — the divorce and creed proceedings and his citadel imprisonment in 726 — bore on his students before his death at Damascus in 728.
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Ibn Kathir keeps close to the hafiz al-Mizzi and marries his daughter, about 735/1335
Ibn Kathir stayed close to his shaykh, the hafiz of the age Jamal al-Din Abu l-Hajjaj al-Mizzi, at Damascus, read the Tahdhib al-Kamal to him and married his daughter — his wife being al-Mizzi's daughter Zaynab; the companionship lasted until al-Mizzi's death in 742.
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Ibn Qayyim's first khutba at Nadim al-Din's mosque in the Ghuta, 2 Rajab 736/15 February 1336
On 2 Rajab 736/15 February 1336 Ibn Qayyim delivered his first khutba in the mosque that Nadim al-Din ibn Khalikhan had recently founded in the gardens of the Ghuta, outside Bab Sharqi and Bab Tuma.
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Ibn Qayyim's pilgrimage with the Syrian caravan, 731/1331
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 731/1331-2; the Syrian caravan that left Damascus under the leadership of the amir Izz al-Din Aybak is said to have included a considerable number of jurisconsults and traditionists.
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Ibn Qayyim attaches himself to Ibn Taymiyya on the latter's return to Damascus, 712/1312-13
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya attached himself to his teacher Ibn Taymiyya from the latter's return to Damascus from Egypt in 712 until Ibn Taymiyya's death, so devoted to him that he never departed from any of his positions and defended them all; it was he who refined his master's books and spread his learning. F. de la Granja gives 713/1313 as the start of a discipleship in which Ibn Qayyim absorbed all of Ibn Taymiyya's ideas and helped popularize his work.
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Birth of Ibn Rajab in Baghdad, Rabi' I 736
Zayn al-Din Abu al-Faraj Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Hasan al-Salami al-Baghdadi, known as Ibn Rajab after his grandfather's laqab, was born in Baghdad in Rabi' al-Awwal 736 AH, by agreement of the sources consulted by the editor of Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam; Ibn Hajar dated it 706, which the editor considers a slip of the pen.
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Ibn Taymiyya's exile in a tower at Alexandria, 709/1309
When Baybars al-Jashnikir took the sultanate in 708 the persecutions resumed: on the last night of Safar 709/7-8 August 1309 Ibn Taymiyya was taken under strong guard to Alexandria and confined in a tower of the sultan's palace, allowed to receive visitors and to write. During the seven months of exile he met Maghribis passing through and composed important works, among them the Radd 'ala al-Mantiqiyyin and a long refutation (now lost) of Ibn Tumart's Murshida. When al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun regained the throne on 1 Shawwal 709/4 March 1310 he released Ibn Taymiyya and received him in audience at Cairo.
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The last imprisonment in the Damascus citadel until death, 726-728/1326-1328
On 16 Sha'ban 726/18 July 1326 Ibn Taymiyya was arrested without further trial, and a sultanic decree depriving him of the right to issue fatwas was read out in the Umayyad Mosque, over his epistle on visits to tombs (ziyarat al-qubur) in which he condemned the cult of the saints. His disciples were arrested with him and soon released — all but Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. He remained a prisoner in the citadel more than two years, writing and issuing fatwas; works of this period include Ma'arij al-wusul, Raf' al-malam, and the Radd 'ala al-Ikhna'i. On 9 Jumada II 728/21 April 1328, on a complaint by al-Ikhna'i, the sultan ordered his paper, ink and pens taken from him. Five months later he died in the citadel, on 20 Dhu al-Qa'da 728/26 September 1328, and was buried in the cemetery of the Sufiyya, where his tomb is still honoured.
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Ibn Taymiyya's return to Damascus under Tankiz, 712/1313
After three years in Cairo — consulted by al-Nasir on Syrian affairs and beginning his treatise al-Siyasa al-shar'iyya — a new Mongol threat, quickly dispelled, sent Ibn Taymiyya back to Damascus, which he entered via Jerusalem on 1 Dhu al-Qa'da 712/28 February 1313, under the new governor Tankiz (d. 740/1340). There he spent his last fifteen years as a professor regarded by his supporters as an independent mujtahid, with Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) his chief pupil, spreading his ideas and sharing some of his persecution.
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Ibn Taymiyya at the victory of Shaqhab, 702/1303
During the new Mongol invasion of 702/1303 Ibn Taymiyya was present at the victory of Shaqhab on 4 Ramadan 702/22 April 1303, having been commissioned to issue a fatwa permitting the fighters to break the fast. Before that, in 700, he had ridden the barid post to Cairo in Jumada I, rousing the people to jihad and asking Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun to intervene in Syria.
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The divorce fatwas and the Damascus citadel imprisonment, 718-721/1318-1321
In 718/1318 a letter from the sultan forbade Ibn Taymiyya to issue fatwas on repudiation contrary to prevailing Hanbali doctrine: he had denied that three repudiations uttered at once took effect and counted an oath of repudiation a single oath where no repudiation was intended. Two councils presided over by Tankiz in 718 and 719 were followed by a third on 20 Rajab 720/26 August 1320, which found him in breach of the prohibition and condemned him to prison; he spent just over five months in the Damascus citadel, released on 10 Muharram 721/9 February 1321 by decree of al-Malik al-Nasir.
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The Wasitiyya councils and the Cairo citadel imprisonment, 705-707/1306-1307
Ibn Taymiyya's enemies cast doubt on his Wasitiyya, written shortly before the Mongols entered Damascus. Two councils at the governor's residence on 8 and 12 Rajab 705/24 and 28 January 1306 found it 'in conformity with the Qur'an and the Sunna'; when the qadi al-qudat Ibn al-Sarsari reopened the matter, a third council on 7 Sha'ban 705/22 February 1306 again declined to condemn it, and Ibn al-Sarsari resigned. The two adversaries were sent to Cairo, arriving on 22 Ramadan 705/7 April 1306. The next day a citadel council of Egypt's four chief qadis convicted him of anthropomorphism; he remained in the Cairo citadel about a year and a half, released on 26 Rabi' I 707/25 September 1307 through the intercession of the amir Salar and the Bedouin amir Muhanna ibn Isa.
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Mansa Musa takes the throne of Mali
Mansa Musa succeeded Mari Jata on the throne of Mali about 1312.
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The hajj of Mansa Musa
The journey of Mali's king Mansa Musa to the Hijaz in 724 AH in a caravan that astonished Egypt and the Hijaz — over twelve thousand attendants in brocade and Yemeni silk, feasting every halt on rare foods and sweets — leaving Egypt retelling his munificence for generations, while he planned a lime-plastered guest house in his capital for his returning entourage.
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The Abu Ya'qub–al-Nasir Muhammad embassy exchange
When Abu Ya'qub's Marinid kingship ran steady and the roads mended, he licensed the Maghrebis' first sea-hajj in years for 703 — having a splendid mushaf transcribed by Ahmad ibn Hasan the master scribe, bound with gold clasps set in ordered pearls and rubies and endowed to the Sacred Mosque — sent with the pilgrims a Zanata guard near five hundred under qadi Muhammad ibn Raghbush, and a gift of Barb horses and four hundred rare mounts to al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun; the Egyptian sultan, pleased, gathered marvels of his lands — garments, an elephant and a giraffe — and sent them by Amir al-Tilili, leaving Cairo at the end of 705 and reaching the sultan's court at the Mansura of Fes Jdid in Jumada II 706, and the sultan rejoiced at their coming and mounted.
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Al-Mizzi takes the shaykhhood of Dar al-Hadith al-Ashrafiyya, Damascus, 718/1318
Al-Mizzi took charge of the dar al-hadith in 718/1318 after Ibn al-Shirishi, and it was Ibn Taymiyya who had worked for his appointment. From 718/1319 he was head of the Dar al-Hadith al-Ashrafiyya, one of the great hadith academies of Damascus and a waqf; its founder had stipulated the shaykh be Ash'ari in creed, so al-Mizzi wrote in his own hand that he was an Ash'ari — yet many doubted his sincerity because of his companionship with Ibn Taymiyya.
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Al-Mizzi is jailed over Ibn Taymiyya and the Khalq Af'al al-Ibad, 705/1305
In 705/1305 al-Mizzi was harmed on account of Ibn Taymiyya: after the latter's disputation with the Shafi'is and his sessions with al-Safi al-Hindi then Ibn al-Zamlakani at the Ablaq palace, al-Mizzi began reading al-Bukhari's Khalq Af'al al-Ibad, which contains a chapter refuting the Jahmiyya; some held themselves meant by it, and the Shafi'i qadi of the day ordered him jailed. Ibn Taymiyya went and had him released; the deputy al-Afram had him re-jailed, then freed, and ordered proclamation that whoever discusses creed is killed; al-Dhahabi records that he was imprisoned for reading part of the Af'al al-Ibad book, and bore it patiently.
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Al-Mizzi takes the Nuriyya shaykhhood after Ibn Abi al-Fath, early 740/1339
The shaykh Ibn Abi al-Fath died on the morning of Sunday 4 Dhu al-Hijja 739 at the age of seventy-four and a half, and 'after him our shaykh al-Mizzi took the shaykhhood of the Nuriyya, Ibn Raf'a that of the Qawsiyya, and al-Abd that of the Nafisiyya'.
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Death of Muhyi al-Din Yahya ibn Fadl Allah, 738/1338
Muhyi al-Din Yahya ibn Fadl Allah, head of the chancery at Damascus then in Egypt and katib al-sirr al-sharif, died on 9 Ramadan 738 at ninety-three, having resigned his post with leave to return to Syria to die there; his younger son, the qadi Ala al-Din, was installed as katib al-sirr after him.
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The arrest of al-Mustakfi and his exile to Qus
In 736 fell the breach between al-Mustakfi and the sultan — his nephew Ibrahim's slanders the cause — arrested in the citadel tower, barred from company, then exiled in Dhu'l-Hijja 737 to Qus with his children and household, near a hundred souls provided for; there he stayed till his death in Sha'ban 740, buried at Qus aged about fifty-five.
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Al-Nuwayri in the audition sessions: Sahih al-Bukhari under Wazira bint al-Munadhdha, 715/1315
Al-Nuwayri kept a lifelong interest in the teaching of hadith: he attended the shaykha Wazira bint al-Munadhdha's (d. 716) transmission sessions of Sahih al-Bukhari in 715/1315, likewise those of al-Salihi al-Hajjar (d. 730) at the Mansuriyya madrasa; he heard the Sunan of Abu Dawud from Ibn al-Sabuni (d. 720), the Kitab al-Shifa from Abd al-Haqq ibn Fityan al-Qurashi in 708/1308 at the Nasiriyya, and Malik's Muwatta' and Sahih Muslim from the Sharif Izz al-Din al-Dimashqi (d. 715); among his masters were Abd al-Mu'min al-Dimyati, Ibn Daqiq al-Id, chief qadi Ibn Jama'a and the shaykha Zaynab bint Yahya.
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The second copy of the Nihaya: eighteen volumes in under ten months, 721-722/1321-1322
Al-Nuwayri began a second copy of his encyclopaedia, completing its first volume on 20 Dhu al-Qa'da 721/11 December 1321, the fifth on 22 Jumada I 722/8 June 1322, the seventeenth on 7 Ramadan 722/19 September and the eighteenth on 26 Ramadan/8 October — eighteen volumes in under ten months. His biographers noted his capacity to fill three manuscript notebooks in a day; besides the copies he made and sold there were eight copies of the Sahih of al-Bukhari — he wrote the copy, filled it, carried over its collations and readings and finished it off in a thousand — and he was deemed an excellent calligrapher and bookbinder.
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Al-Nuwayri's death at Cairo, 21 Ramadan 733/5 June 1333
Al-Nuwayri died at Cairo on 21 Ramadan 733/5 June 1333 at the age of fifty-six, having composed a monumental work of 9,000 pages in thirty-one volumes entitled Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, written between 714 and 731 over some seventeen years — his chronicle closing at 731, two years before his death. He was good-looking, charming and companionable; a copy in his hand sold for two thousand dirhams.
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The Iwan al-Bahri dream: al-Nuwayri still at the Nasiriyya, 13 Dhu al-Qa'da 729/8 September 1329
It seems al-Nuwayri continued to reside at the Nasiriyya madrasa: he mentions a dream he had at that time in one of its iwans called al-Iwan al-Bahri, on the eve of Friday 13 Dhu al-Qa'da 729/8 September 1329; the exact date he abandoned administration to devote himself to composition is not known.
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Ibn Abbada has al-Nuwayri flogged and confiscates his property, c. 710/1310
Ibn Abbada, the sultan's wakil al-khass, had made al-Nuwayri his deputy at the Nasiriyya, the Mansuriyya and elsewhere, so that he entered upon the sultan and read affairs with him; puffed up by this he spoke loosely of Ibn Abbada, and the sultan did not restrain his denunciation but handed him over to Ibn Abbada and empowered him, who flogged him severely and confiscated his property — and nobody thanked al-Nuwayri for what he had done. Soon after he was sent away to Syria; he does not even hint at this misfortune in his work and mentions only his transfer to Tripoli.
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Al-Nuwayri joins the exiled al-Nasir at al-Karak, Rabi' II 709/September 1309
Wearying of the senior amirs' tutelage, Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun abdicated in 708 and installed himself as governor of al-Karak while Baybars al-Jashankir took power in Cairo; five months later, in Rabi' II 709 (September 1309), al-Nuwayri the loyalist joined him at al-Karak, holding him the only legitimate sultan, and returned to Cairo only with the sultan when he regained the throne at the end of Ramadan 709/early March 1310.
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The Karasunkur-Aqqush defection to the Mongols and al-Nuwayri's stand, 712/1312
When al-Nasir, stung by two depositions, set about eliminating the senior amirs who could threaten his rule, the governor of Aleppo, Shams al-Din Karasunkur, saw that his only hope of survival was flight and tried to win over amirs including the na'ib of Tripoli, perhaps to provoke an insurrection in Syria. Al-Nuwayri, claiming amicable relations with the governor, sought to dissuade him from following Karasunkur — he recounts the conversation and his arguments — but the amir nevertheless fled to the Mongols together with Damascus's governor Jamal al-Din Aqqush al-Afram and tried to induce al-Nuwayri and the amirs of Tripoli to join him; al-Nuwayri relates how he persuaded all but one to stay and induced them to renew their oath of allegiance to the sultan.
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Composition of the Nihaya begins: volume one dated 714/1314
After some eighteen years in administration (about 698-716) al-Nuwayri retired from public life and gave himself to adab and to his encyclopaedia — he had, as he puts it in his introduction, mounted the war-horse of reading and investigation until he composed a work to keep him company in five funun. The earliest volume (vol. 1, p. 16) bears the date 714/1314; the sole surviving autograph of the first version is volume 19, dated 9 Jumada II 718/8 August 1318; volumes 29 and 30 are dated 725/1325 with additions to 30 made after 728.
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Recall to Cairo as mubashir of the royal estates and Mansuri waqfs, Ramadan 703/1304
Recalled to Cairo in Ramadan 703 (April 1304), al-Nuwayri resumed his administrative work as mubashir amlak al-khass al-sharif, administering the diwan al-khass, the bimaristan al-Mansuri and the whole range of Mansuri waqfs, apparently under the supervision of chief qadi Ibn Makhluf; back in residence at the madrasa he witnessed the opening of the Ibn Taymiyya affair (705-709) which began at the Nasiriyya itself, and was pressed into a minor mediating role between his patron Ibn Makhluf and Damascus's governor Jamal al-Din Aqqush al-Afram, the shaykh's ardent defender. When the amir al-Turkumani died he was charged with sequestering and liquidating his assets, then with erecting him a turba with a maintenance waqf — al-Nasir Muhammad himself walked to al-Qarafa to draw its plan on the ground.
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Return from Tripoli to Cairo and the Delta inspectorate, 712/1312
Al-Nuwayri left Tripoli in Jumada I 712 (September 1312) and entered Cairo on 20 Rajab/20 November of the same year after a brief stay at Damascus on the way; the circumstances of his leaving Tripoli are obscure. According to his biographers, on his return he was appointed nazir al-diwan of two Nile Delta provinces, al-Dakhaliyya and al-Murtahiyya — so that until about 716/1316 he administered their revenues while residing at Cairo, probably for the rest of his life.
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Al-Nuwayri fights beside Mughultay, 29 Sha'ban 702/18 April 1303, eyewitness of Shaqhab
Al-Nuwayri took part in a battle against the Mongols on 29 Sha'ban 702/18 April 1303 alongside the amir Ala' al-Din Mughultay, and so could describe the war against the Mongols and the victory of Shaqhab as an eyewitness; in 703 an equine epidemic destroyed his small fortune — no fewer than ten horses — leaving him without even a mount of his own.
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Al-Nuwayri arrives at Tripoli as sahib diwan al-insha', Safar 710/July 1310
Al-Nuwayri reached Tripoli in Safar 710 (July 1310) as sahib diwan al-insha', head of the correspondence office, replacing the senior official Taj al-Din al-Tawil, mustawfi al-dawla (d. 711); a few months later the same year he was appointed nazir al-jaysh in place of the lately deceased Najm al-Din al-Qasir. He travelled extensively during his time at Tripoli, as he had in Upper Egypt and Damascus, and stayed until 712/1312, witnessing the governor of Damascus's defection to the Mongols.
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Orhan Gazi Mosque begun in Bursa
Building of the Orhan Gazi Mosque, the first imperial mosque in Bursa, began in 1339 CE; it is the example of the 'cross-axial eyvan' mosque.
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Orhan reburies his father Osman in Bursa
Osman Gazi died at Söğüt about two years before the conquest; after entering Bursa his son Orhan reburied him in what had been the baptistry of the church of St. Elias the Prophet, converted into a mosque after the conquest.
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Al-Safadi's chancery service: Safad, Aleppo, al-Rahba, 723-726/1323-1326
Al-Safadi's gifts as a stylist and calligrapher opened government service to him: he first held kitabat al-darj at Safad, then at Cairo; he conducted kitabat al-sirr at Aleppo for a time between 723/1323 and 726/1326, and briefly at al-Rahba toward the end of the decade, while shuttling between the capitals Damascus and Cairo.
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Al-Safadi's earliest attested copying, 718/1318
Al-Safadi's copying activity is already attested in 718/1318 by a manuscript of Ibn Nubata's Khutab in his hand; he went on copying so assiduously that autograph volumes he wrote number nearly five hundred, with twice as much again in his chancery production.
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Al-Safadi at Damascus meets Ibn Taymiyya, 717/1317
Al-Safadi came to Damascus as a young man of twenty and had his first meeting with Ibn Taymiyya in 717/1317 or 718/1318, displaying a store of knowledge he proudly and repeatedly recalls in his own works; he read with al-Shihab Mahmud, Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, Ibn Nubata and Abu Hayyan, and heard hadith at Damascus from al-Mizzi and Ibn Jama'a.
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The Sankore mosque at Timbuktu
The Sankore mosque at Timbuktu was raised about 730/1330 in the city's golden age as capital of Mali — one of the great schools of learning in the Sudan.
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Second Siege of Gibraltar
Draft card for the Second Siege of Gibraltar in 1315, Castile's failed bid to retake the rock from the Marinids; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The great Multan tomb raised about 715
About 715/1315 the great tomb at Multan was raised, said to have been built by Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq for himself and later devoted to Shah Rukn-i Alam by Firuz Shah; its lower storey is octagonal rather than square, with tapered round buttresses at the angles, the brickwork relieved by carving, shisham-wood string courses and panels set with turquoise ceramics — the mature form of Multan's three-zone tomb under a hemispherical dome.
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Siege of Algeciras (1309)
Draft card for the Siege of Algeciras in 1309–10, Castile's failed blockade of the Nasrid city; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Almería
Draft card for the Siege of Almería in 1309, the Aragonese assault on the Granadan city; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Béjaïa
Draft card for the Siege of Béjaïa in 1326–29, the Zayyanid siege of the Hafsid-held city; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Bejaia (1331–1332)
Draft card for Siege of Bejaia (1331–1332); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Ceuta (1309)
Draft card for the Siege of Ceuta in 1309, a clash of the Maghreb–Andalus struggle in the Marinid age; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Mudanya (1321)
Draft card for Siege of Mudanya (1321); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Oujda (1314)
Draft card for Siege of Oujda (1314); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Patras (1338)
Draft card for Siege of Patras (1338); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Tlemcen
Draft card for the Siege of Tlemcen in 1335–37, Abu al-Hasan the Marinid's capture of the city and the Abd al-Wadids' end; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Taj al-Din al-Subki arrives in Damascus with his father, 739
Taj al-Din al-Subki came to Damascus in 739 with his father, the chief qadi Taqi al-Din, and heard hadith there from Zaynab bint al-Kamal, Ibn Abi al-Yusr and others.
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Third Siege of Gibraltar
Draft card for the Third Siege of Gibraltar in 1333, the Marinid recapture of the Rock from Castile; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Al-Umari's arrest and confiscation, Sha'ban 739/1339
Shihab al-Din petitioned for leave to travel to al-Sham; the sultan instead had the dawadar summon him, issued a rescript against him, confiscated his property and imprisoned him in Sha'ban 739 (February-March 1339).
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The Ibn Fadl Allah family moves to the Cairo chancery, 729/1329
When Muhyi al-Din Yahya ibn Fadl Allah was made head of the chancery and katib al-sirr at Cairo in 729/1329 after Damascus, his son Shihab al-Din Ahmad began his public career as an assistant to his ageing father.
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Al-Umari's release from prison, Rabi' II 740/1339
From prison Ibn Fadl Allah raised a petition for a man whose hand had been cut off over an allegedly forged rescript; when al-Nasir asked about the man and none could explain his case, they said 'ask Ahmad ibn Fadl Allah', who laid out the story in detail — whereupon the sultan ordered both freed, in Rabi' II 740 (October-November 1339), then summoned him and bound him to loyal counsel.
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al-Nasir's anger and al-Umari's dismissal, c. 737/1337
When Tankiz asked al-Nasir to confirm Alam al-Din Ibn al-Qutb as katib al-sirr, Ibn Fadl Allah objected that he was a Copt; ordered to raise Ibn al-Qutb's salary he flared, 'Is it not enough that he is katib al-sirr, that his pay must be raised too?' then rose before the sultan saying, 'Your service is forbidden me.' Al-Nasir's wrath burst: he had Ahmad's brother Ala al-Din installed in his place and confined him to his house.
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Dropping the Khutba for Two Caliphs and the Empty Pulpits
On al-Mustakfi's death at Qus his will named his son Ahmad; the sultan ignored it and hailed his cousin Ibrahim al-Wathiq — a dissolute man his grandfather had passed over. Chief qadi Ibn Jama'a strove to turn the sultan from the khutba in his name and failed, so they agreed to drop BOTH names and keep the sultan's alone: 'the caliphate's name stepped down from the minbars as if it had never climbed, the prayer for caliphs emptied from the mihrabs as if it had never knocked' — till the sultan's deathbed repentance restored Ahmad as al-Hakim, Muharram 741.