Najm al-Dīn Abū'l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. ʿAdī ʿImād al-Dīn b. Muḥammad b.
ʿAdī Amīn al-Dīn Ṣālim b. Ḥāfiẓ al-Muḥaddith Bahāʾ al-Dīn Abī al-Mawāhib b. Ḥibatullāh b. Maḥfūẓ b. Ḥasan b. Ḥasan b. Muḥammad b. Ḥasan b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Sāsarī al-Ṭaġlibī al-Ribʿī. He belonged to the Shāfiʿī madhhab. He was the Qāḍī al-Qudāt (Chief Judge) of Damascus. He was born in the month of Dhū al-Qaʿda in the year 655 AH. He listened to ḥadīth and pursued knowledge. By listening to Qāḍī Shams al-Dīn b. Ḥallīkān, he wrote the work titled Vafayāt al-Aʿyān and read it again in his presence. He also took lessons in grammar from Shaykh Ṭāj al-Dīn al-Faẓarf. He was an authority in composition and elegant expression. In the year 682 AH, he taught at the Adiliyya al-Ṣaġīra Madrasa; in 690 AH at the ʿAmīniyya Madrasa; and in 694 AH at the Ghazāliyya Madrasa. During the time of ʿAdil Kutbughā, he served as qāḍīʿaskar (military judge). Then, in 702 AH, following the appointment of Ibn Dāqīq al-ʿĪd and then Ibn Jamāʿa as qāḍī of Egypt, he himself was appointed as Qāḍī of Damascus.
Later, alongside teaching at the Adiliyya, Faẓāʾiyya, and ʿAṭābakiyya madrasas, he was also given the office of Shaykh al-Shuyūkh (chief of the shuyūkh). Afterwards, he renounced all these worldly positions and left them to others. At his death, he said, "I wish I had never been appointed to these offices; they are petty metals." He was a leader, magnificent, dignified, noble, and of good character. He was respected by the sultan and in the state ranks. On the night of Thursday, the sixteenth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, while sitting in his garden, he suddenly died from an arrow that struck him. The funeral prayer was performed at the Muẓaffarī Mosque. Present at the funeral were the deputy of the sultan, qāḍīs, nobles, and members of the ʿumara and ʿayān classes. The funeral ceremony was truly magnificent. He was buried in the family cemetery in Rukniyya.