the Damascenes who were said to be in league with al-Kāmil: among them the scholar Taʿāsīf (1) and the sons of Ibn Muzhir, whom he had imprisoned in Busra. He released al-Ḥarīrī from the fortress of ʿAzzāz (2) on condition that he never enter Damascus.
Soon afterwards al-Kāmil arrived from Egypt, and al-Nāṣir Dāwud, lord of al-Karak, Nablus, and Jerusalem, joined him; together they laid a hard siege to Damascus. Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl had already fortified the city, and the watercourses were cut (3), while al-Kāmil diverted the waters of the Baradā River toward Thawrā. The ʿUqaybah quarter and Qasr Ḥajjāj were set ablaze; many people were reduced to poverty (4) and others were burned to death, and the calamities dragged on (5).
At length, toward the end of Jumādā al-Ūlā, Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl surrendered Damascus to his brother al-Kāmil, retaining for himself Baʿlabakk and Busra; the turmoil subsided. The truce was concluded through the mediation of Qāḍī Muḥyī al-Dīn Yūsuf, son of Shaykh Abū al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī, who happened to be in Damascus on an embassy from the Caliph—may Allah reward him with goodness.
Al-Kāmil then entered Damascus and released al-Falak (6) ibn al-Maysirī from the Serpents’ Dungeon in the citadel, where al-Ashraf had confined him, and he had al-Ashraf transferred to his mausoleum. On Monday, the sixth of Jumādā al-Ākhirah, al-Kāmil ordered the imams (7) of the Great Mosque that none of them should lead the Maghrib prayer except the chief imam, so as to prevent the confusion and disputes that arose when they all officiated at once—an excellent decision, may Allah have mercy on him.
The same measure has been adopted in our own day for the tarāwīḥ prayer: the worshippers now gather behind a single reciter—the chief imam in the main miḥrāb beside the pulpit. On that day no other imam remained (8) except the one at the Ḥalabiyyah gate near the shrine of ʿAlī; had he likewise been dismissed, it would have been better still. Allah knows best.
Account of the death of al-Malik al-Kāmil (9) Muḥammad ibn al-ʿĀdil—may Allah Most High have mercy on him. Al-Kāmil held [Damascus] for two months, after which he was stricken (10) with various illnesses, including a cough, diarrhea, an inflammation of the throat, and gout in his feet, and it so happened that he died in