and two thousand prisoners. Jaysh then sent a force toward Antioch (1); it returned with captives and rich spoils (2).

He advanced on Damascus, his prestige now immense. He camped outside the walls, and the city was festively adorned for his arrival. He proclaimed justice and began to court the street-youth factions until he put them at ease. Meanwhile he ordered his commanders to make full preparations: he drew up sealed slips, divided the city into sectors, and assigned every alley to a particular officer with instructions to strike with the sword when commanded. In the bathhouse of his residence at Bayt Lahiya he stationed two hundred men with swords. He spread a banquet for the youths; when they rose to wash their hands, he locked the doors on them. Each faction-leader used to ride with his armed followers, and the number trapped that day was twelve commanders. They were killed, and his men turned on their retainers and cut them down. The Egyptian troops entered Damascus by the sword; it was a day of anguish—may Allah grant well-being.

He next dispatched the commander Nasrun to the villages of al-Ghūṭa and al-Marj, where about one thousand were slain. The townspeople pleaded with Jaysh, crying, “Pardon, pardon!” so he relented. He summoned the leading notables; when they had gathered, he produced the heads of the youth leaders whose necks he had already struck. He then began widespread confiscation and torture, levying a fine of five hundred thousand dinars.

It was said that the number of youths and brigands killed reached three thousand souls. Allah uprooted him only a few months later, in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir of the year 390 AH (3).

The Muslims endured their gravest trials in life, wealth, and religion at the hands of the Ubaydid Fatimids and the North Africans. The affair belongs to Allah. Jaysh himself was afflicted with a torment beyond measure, until he vomited the contents of his stomach and would say to his companions, “Kill me—woe to you! Relieve me of this life.”