Ibn Muḥammad al-Barzalī, the Damascene historian who appended a continuation to the chronicle of Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Shāma (1)—and I, for my part, have likewise added a supplement to his history by Allah’s grace [and power].
[Then the year 637 AH began]
The year opened while the Sultan of Damascus, Najm al-Dīn al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb ibn al-Kāmil, was encamped near Nablus. He was summoning his uncle al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl to march on Egypt, which had been seized from its ruler al-ʿĀdil ibn al-Kāmil. Al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl had already dispatched his own son together with Ibn Yaghmūr (2) to join al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb at Nablus; there they were disbursing money among the amirs and binding them by oath—turning their allegiance from al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb to al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl (3). When the matter was settled and al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl had achieved his aim, he sent to al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb asking that his son be delivered to him, to be held in Baalbek in exchange, while Ayyūb himself would come to serve him. Unaware (4) of what had transpired, al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb sent the boy. All of this had been orchestrated by Abū al-Ḥasan Ghazāl (5), the physician-vizier of al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl—the very Amīn who founded the Amīniyya of Baalbek (6).
On Tuesday, the twenty-seventh of Ṣafar, al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl, accompanied by Asad al-Dīn Shīrkūh, lord of Ḥimṣ, mounted a sudden assault (7) on Damascus. They entered the city unannounced through Bāb al-Farādīs. Al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl took up residence in his house on Darb al-Shuʿārīn (8), while the lord of Ḥimṣ lodged in his own quarters. Najm al-Dīn ibn Sallām (9) arrived, congratulated al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl, and danced before him, repeating, “I have come to your home.”
At daybreak they laid siege to the citadel, where al-Mughīth ʿUmar, son of al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn, was in command. They breached the fortress from the side of Bāb al-Faraj, violated its sanctity, entered, seized it, and imprisoned al-Mughīth in a tower there.
Abū Shāma says (10): “The Dār al-Ḥadīth was burned down, as were the surrounding shops and houses near the citadel.”