Only those who performed the washing and assisted in it were allowed to stay. When they had finished, he was brought out, and the people had already massed at the Citadel and along the road to the Great Mosque of Damascus. The mosque itself, its courtyard, the Kallasa, the Gate of the Post, the Gate of the Clocks, all the way to the felt-makers’ market and the Fountain (1) were filled to overflowing.

The bier arrived in the fourth hour of the day, or thereabouts ⦗133⦘, and was set down inside the mosque while soldiers shielded it from the crowd because of the intense crush. The first funeral prayer was held for him in the Citadel, led by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Tammam (2). A second prayer was performed in the Great Mosque of Damascus immediately after the noon prayer. He was then carried out through the Gate of the Post as the multitude swelled, and people flung their handkerchiefs and turbans onto the bier to seek blessing (3). The bier was borne on their heads, now moving forward, now falling back. The worshippers poured out of every gate of the mosque, each doorway more congested than the next.

From there the crowd surged out through all the city gates, though most passed through four in particular: Bab al-Faraj—the gate from which the procession had set out—Bab al-Faradīs, Bab an-Nasr, and Bab al-Jabiyah. The press became especially severe in the Horse Market (5), and there his brother, Zayn al-Din ʿAbd al-Rahman, stepped forward to lead the prayer,