On the twelfth (1) of Shawwal Khidr (2) al-Kurdi, the spiritual guide of Sultan al-Malik al-Zahir, together with his companions, entered the Jews’ synagogue. There they performed the ritual prayer, removed the symbols of Judaism that were inside, spread out a banquet, and held a samāʿ (Sufi musical devotional). They remained there in that state for several days, after which the synagogue was returned to the Jews.
The Sultan then set out for the coastal districts, took several of them, climbed to a height overlooking Acre and examined it, and thereafter proceeded to the Egyptian lands. What he spent during this period and in the campaigns amounted to nearly eight hundred thousand dinars, yet Allah made it up to him. He reached Cairo on Thursday, the thirteenth of Dhu al-Hijjah.
On the seventeenth day after his arrival he arrested a number of amirs, among them al-Halabi (3) and others, for he had been informed that they intended to seize him at Shaqif.
On the seventeenth of Dhu al-Hijjah he ordered that all wine throughout his dominions be poured away, threatening with death anyone who pressed or sold it, and he cancelled the tax-farm on that trade. In Cairo alone, the daily (4) revenue from that contract had been one thousand dinars. Couriers then carried the decree to every province.
In that same year the Sultan seized al-ʿAziz ibn al-Mughith, lord of al-Karak, together with a group of his followers, for they had resolved to proclaim him Sultan.
Among the distinguished figures who died this year was al-Malik Taqi al-Din ʿAbbas ibn al-Malik al-ʿAdil (5) Abu Bakr ibn Ayyub ibn Shadhi. He was the last of al-ʿAdil’s sons to remain alive. He had transmitted hadith from al-Kindi and Ibn al-Harrastani and was highly respected by the kings; in their gatherings and processions no one was ever allowed to sit above him. He was mild-mannered and agreeable, and his company never wearied anyone. He passed away on Friday, the twenty-second of Jumada al-Akhira, in Darb al-Rayhan, and was buried in his tomb at the foot of Mount Qasyun.
Chief Judge Sharaf al-Din Abu Hafs (6) ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Salih ibn ʿIsa al-Subki (7), a Maliki.