His main work is Dhayl mufarrij al-kurūb fī akhbār banī Ayyūb.
His maternal grandfather, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Anṣārī, who died in 1264, settled in the town and married his daughters into the prominent al-Mughayzil family.
[2] ʿAlī's date of birth is unknown, but he was already an adult early in the reign of Sultan Baybars I (1260–1277).
The Dhayl describes the death of Al-Manṣūr II (1284) and how ʿAlī came to serve as al-Muẓaffar's principal secretary in considerable detail.
He evidently had some direct dealings with the Franks, making him a useful source for the final period of the Crusades in Syria.