with their weapons (1), so the Tatars were unable to come anywhere near him (2). They saw that the whole order of state had changed and that sleeves had been rolled up for battle—[the keen blades had been unsheathed, the Indian spears couched, the bows strung, the arrows gathered, the horses hardened, the kettledrums prepared, and, above all, God’s providence had descended upon the people of Syria and His mercy had hastened to embrace them] (3). At that, their demons recoiled upon their heels and they turned back (4) in headlong retreat [dragging their tails behind them]. Praise be to God, by whose favor all good works are perfected.

Al-Malik al-Muẓaffar Qutuz—may God have mercy upon him—had appointed over Damascus the amir ʿAlam al-Dīn Sunjar (5) al-Ḥalabī, one of the Turks. When news of Qutuz’s slaying reached him, he entered the Citadel, summoned allegiance to himself, and assumed the title al-Malik al-Mujāhid. When, however, the pledge of loyalty arrived for al-Malik al-Ẓāhir, the Friday sermon on the sixth of Dhu al-Ḥijjah was delivered in his name: the preacher prayed first for al-Mujāhid and then for al-Ẓāhir, and coinage was struck bearing both their names. Shortly thereafter this Mujāhid disappeared from the scene, as will be related (6).

That same year saw events of a truly wondrous kind. At the beginning of the year (7) Syria was in the hands of Sultan al-Nasir ibn al-ʿAziz; midway through Safar (8) it passed to Hulagu (9), king of the Tatars; at the end of Ramadan it came under al-Muẓaffar Qutuz; and late in Dhu al-Qaʿdah it fell to al-Ẓāhir Baybars (10), though in Damascus he shared authority with al-Malik al-Mujāhid ʿAlam al-Dīn Sunjar, as already mentioned. Likewise, the chief judgeship of Syria at the start of the year was held by Ibn Sanī al-Dawla Ṣadr al-Dīn (11); it then passed to al-Kamal ʿUmar al-Tiflīsī by appointment of Hulagu (12), then to Ibn al-Zaki (13), and finally to Najm al-Dīn Ibn Sanī al-Dawla. In similar fashion, the preacher of the Great Mosque of Damascus, ʿImād al-Dīn Ibn al-Harrastānī (14), who had occupied that pulpit for many long years, was dismissed in Shawwal.