By the help of God the Exalted, I shall mention what God has favored me with regarding that which I memorized and transmitted from the Imam of the Aleppo community, al-Jazari—may God make his ultimate return beautiful—of his religious ordinances which I followed, tracking his footsteps and what he stated in his epistles. He mentioned that after the occultation of al-Hasan al-'Askari, majestic is his glory, the authority transferred to the masters of the spiritual ranks—from the Gates (al-Abwab) and the Orphans (al-Aytam) down to the possessors of knowledge and virtue, such as the Master Abu 'Abdullah, the jurist of the community, and whoever followed him from the descendants of al-Jilli, al-Jisri, Bani Shu'bah, and their likenesses.
Following that, it transferred to the holders of executive offices, the fortresses, and the emirs from Bani Mihriz, Bani al-Ahmar, Bani al-'Arid, and their peers [among the emirs] 1 , alongside judicial authority and obeyed command. Thus, the community was never devoid of knowledge, virtue, [and textual compositions] 2 ,