The Great Fire of Damascus in 681 AH

In 681 AH there was a great fire in Damascus, which Ibn al-Imad says was unheard of. The fire lasted three days and nights, and it began in the Dhahabiyyin. Much of people's property was lost, and no one was burned in it. ²

Among what was lost to Shaykh Shams al-Din al-Kati were fifteen thousand volumes. Ibn al-Imad relates on the authority of Jamal al-Din al-Basrawi that a leaf from the fire was cast by the wind into the mosque, and on it was a line of verse. ²