On the ninth of Shaʿbān, Tuesday, a dispatch arrived from the land of Egypt by post. This dispatch sent greetings to the new qāḍīs and announced the dismissal of the Shāfiʿī, Ḥanafī, and Mālikī qāḍīs. It reported that Bahaʾ al-Dīn Abū'l-Baqāʾ al-Subkī was appointed as the Shāfiʿī qāḍī, and Shaykh Jamāl al-Dīn b. Sirāj al-Ḥanafī was appointed as the Ḥanafī qāḍī. People went to greet and congratulate them. On this occasion, they organized a ceremony. They informed that the Mālikī qāḍī would come from the land of Egypt. On the twentieth of Shaʿbān, Saturday, two appointment decrees and two khilʿats (robes of honor) for the Shāfiʿī and Ḥanafī qāḍīs arrived from Egypt by post. They donned their khilʿats and came from the Dār al-Saʿāda Palace to the Umayyad Mosque and sat in the maqsūra miḥrāb. The decree of appointment for the Shāfiʿī qāḍī Qāḍī al-Quḍāt Bahaʾ al-Dīn Abū'l-Baqāʾ was read by a muhaddith named Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn b. Sārim opposite the miḥrāb. The appointment decree of Qāḍī al-Quḍāt Jamāl al-Dīn b. Sirāj al-Ḥanafī was read in the same place by the muhaddith Shaykh ʿImād al-Dīn b. Sirāj. Then both began to adjudicate there, and afterwards went to the Ghazāliyya Madrasa where Qāḍī al-Quḍāt Bahaʾ al-Dīn Abū'l-Baqāʾ taught. The Ḥanafī qāḍī sat to his right. I was present there. The qāḍī explained the fast of Yawm al-Shakk (Day of Doubt) in his lesson. Then both together went to the Nūriyya Madrasa. The aforementioned Qāḍī al-Quḍāt Jamāl al-Dīn taught there. Qāḍī al-Quḍāt Bahaʾ al-Dīn was also present at the lesson. It is related that in that lesson he took up the following āya:
“O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah.” (al-Nisāʾ 4:135).
Then Qāḍī Bahaʾ al-Dīn went to the ʿAdāliyya al-Kabīra Madrasa. There he gave a lesson explaining the following āya:
“Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due and when you judge between people to judge with justice.” (al-Nisāʾ 4:58).
On the eighth of Ramaḍān, Wednesday morning, the Mālikī qāḍī arrived in Damascus from Egypt. On the same day he donned the khilʿat and came to the maqsūra of the Umayyad Mosque. The appointment decree was read there in the presence of the qāḍīs and notable members of society by the muhaddith Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn b. Sārim. The genealogy of the person appointed as the Mālikī qāḍī is as follows: Qāḍī al-Quḍāt Sharaf al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Shaykh Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAskar al-ʿIrāqī al-Baghdādī. He had come to Damascus many times, then after serving as a deputy judge for Qudb al-Dīn al-Aḥwī in Baghdad, he settled in Egypt, taught at the Mustansiriyya Madrasa after his father, served as a judge in the city of Damanhūr, and later was transferred to the Mālikī qāḍīship of Damascus. He was a fine scholar and an elderly man, very affable. He expressed himself appropriately. When encountered, he responded with a smiling face. He carried out his duty with chastity, dignity, and nobility, to be remembered with gratitude. May Allah grant him success and guide him to the right path.