In 642 AH (1) the Khwarizmians laid siege to Damascus on behalf of the ruler of Egypt, and famine in the city grew intense. The Syrian forces—accompanied by a detachment of Franks—then met the Egyptians and their Khwarizmian allies between Ascalon and Gaza. Both armies broke and fled, yet the Khwarizmians cut down the Franks in a single hour and took eight hundred of them captive. It is reported that the dead exceeded thirty thousand.

The lord of Homs was utterly crushed; his treasuries were plundered and he wept, saying, “I knew we would never prosper once we marched beneath the crosses.” The siege of Damascus tightened even more.

Returning from the pilgrimage came Umm al-Mustaʿṣim, Mujāhid al-Dīn al-Duwaydar, and Qayrān (2), a most imposing delegation.

The vizier Ibn al-Nāqid died, whereupon al-Muʾayyad Ibn al-ʿAlqamī was appointed vizier, and the office of Ustadh al-Dāriyah was granted to Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-Jawzī.

The year 643 AH began with Damascus still under siege: the populace faltered, the towns were devastated, and deaths were many. Later that year al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl and the lord of Homs abandoned the city and withdrew to Baalbek, while Muʿīn al-Dīn Ḥasan Ibn al-Shaykh entered Damascus, took charge, dismissed the judge Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-Zakī, and appointed Ṣadr al-Dīn Ibn Sanī al-Dawlah in his stead.

Finally, the caliphal envoy Ibn al-Jawzī (3) arrived bearing robes of investiture for al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn.