sweeping through the quarters and turning the city’s most honored people into the most abased (1)—indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we return.
The citadel withstood them for a full month, after which they took control of it under a pledge of safety (2). They then demolished the town walls and the walls of the fortress, so that Aleppo (3) was left looking like a mangy donkey. Its deputy governor was al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam Turanshah ibn Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, an intelligent and resolute man, but the army refused to join him in battle (4); and the command of Allah is an ordained decree.
Hulagu had earlier sent word to the people of Aleppo (5): “We have come only to fight al-Malik al-Nāṣir in Damascus. Install for us a shihna (6) in your city; if victory is ours, the whole country will fall under our rule, but if we are defeated you may, if you wish, kill (7) the shihna, or, if you prefer, set him free.” They replied (8), “The only thing you have from us is the sword.” Astonished at their weakness and their answer (9), he marched against them, surrounded the city, and what occurred did so by the decree of Allah, glorified is He (10).
When Aleppo was taken, the ruler of Ḥamāh sent its keys to Hulagu (11). Hulagu appointed over it a Persian who claimed descent from Khalid ibn al-Walid, a man named Khusrawshah, and he demolished its walls just as he had done to Aleppo (12).
Description of their capture of Damascus (13) and the rapid end of their dominion there
While still encamped before Aleppo, Hulagu dispatched an army with a high-ranking emir named Kitbughanuyin. They reached Damascus at the end of Ṣafar and seized it swiftly, without resistance or opposition (14); indeed, its leading men welcomed them with open arms. Hulagu had issued a writ of safety (15) for the townspeople; it was read aloud in the Maydān al-Akhdar and proclaimed throughout the city, so the populace felt secure—yet apprehensive of betrayal (16), remembering what had been done to the people of Aleppo. All this occurred while the citadel remained impregnable and intact, its mangonels mounted upon its heights, and such was the state of affairs.