In the year fifty-four, the greatest portent appeared—the Fire—on the outskirts of the Prophet’s City, Medina. It blazed for days on end, devouring the very stones. The inhabitants of Medina pleaded with Allah, repented, and wept. People in Mecca could see its glow from their own city, and the necks of the camels in Buṣrā shone in its light—just as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had promised in an authentic report.

During that same year both the sun and the moon were eclipsed, and a massive flood struck Baghdad. Many of its people perished, houses collapsed, and the water rose above the city wall.

Also that year the tyrant Hūlāgū ibn Tūlī ibn Chingīz Khān marched at the head of one hundred thousand men, took the fortress of Alamut, annihilated the Ismāʿīlīs, and sent an army under Bājū Nawin that captured the cities of Rūm; their ruler humbled himself before them, and multitudes were slain.

In that year, too, a fire consumed the entire Prophet’s Mosque at the very beginning of Ramadan, starting from the lamp of the custodian. To Allah belongs all authority.

In the year fifty-five the ruler of Egypt, al-Malik al-Muʿizz Aybak the Turcoman, died—murdered in a fit of jealousy by his wife Shajar al-Durr, after which she was publicly executed.

A dreadful civil strife broke out in Baghdad between the populace and the Rāfiḍīs; many on both sides were killed, the calamity intensified, and the district of Karkh was plundered. Enraged, the Shiʿite vizier Ibn al-ʿAlqamī wrote to Hūlāgū, luring him with the prospect of conquering Iraq. Hūlāgū’s envoys arrived in Baghdad carrying, unbeknownst to anyone, several firmans. The caliph had no idea what was unfolding, and his days were already numbered. The ruler of Damascus was a young, inexperienced coward; he sent his little son, accompanied by the Ḥāfiẓī, bearing tributes and gifts to Hūlāgū, thereby submitting to him. Egypt was in turmoil after the murder of al-Muʿizz, and the lord of Rūm had fled to the lands of the Ashkarī. Hūlāgū therefore grew defiant and tyrannical, seized the realms, and his unbelieving troops ravaged the land—killing, capturing, and burning wherever they went.