the crops (1), and on that very day a bolt of lightning struck Alexandria while another hit a boulder beneath the Red Mountain, burning it completely. The iron was then gathered, smelted, and produced (2) ounces by the Egyptian pound.
The Sultan (3) advanced and encamped with his forces opposite Acre. The Franks were overcome with intense fear and wrote to him seeking a renewal of the truce, for the previous term had expired. He remained in that position until the opening of the year eighty, when the truce was concluded, as will be explained below.
The Emir (4) ʿIsa ibn Muhanna came from the Iraqi lands to serve al-Mansur (5) while the latter was in that encampment. The Sultan rode out with his army to receive him, honored and respected him, and treated him with clemency, pardon, and beneficence.
Among the notable figures who died that year was the grand emir Jamal al-Din (6) Aqush al-Shamsi (7), one of the commanders of Islam. He personally slew Katbughanuyin, a leading Tatar officer; he was the man obeyed on the day of ʿAyn Jalut; and he was the one who seized Aydamur al-Zahiri in Aleppo last year (8). He passed away there—may Allah have mercy on him.
Also deceased was the righteous shaykh Dawud ibn Hatim (9) ibn ʿUmar al-Habbal. A follower of the Hanbali (10) school, he was known for his miracles, upright spiritual states, and genuine unveilings. His ancestors were originally from Harran, while he himself resided in Baalbek, where he died—may Allah have mercy on him—at the age of ninety-six. Shaykh Qutb al-Din, son of the jurist al-Yunini (11), spoke highly of him.
(1) B reads “min al-ghallāl” (from the hulled grains); Aṭ reads “al-mughallāt” (the hulled grains).
(2) B reads “fa-kharaja minhu al-ḥadīd awāqī” (and iron scraps came out of it).
(3) B reads “fa-jaʾa al-sulṭān al-malik al-manṣūr, fa-nazzala bi-ʿasākirihi tujah Madīnat ʿAkkā” (Then Sultan al-Malik al-Mansur came and encamped with his troops facing the city of Acre).
(4) B reads “al-amīr Sharaf al-Dīn ʿĪsā.”
(5) B reads “al-sulṭān al-malik al-manṣūr wa-huwa bihā dhihi al-manzilah, fa-talaqqāhu al-malik al-manṣūr bi-jayshihi” (The Sultan al-Malik al-Mansur, in this station, was met by al-Malik al-Mansur with his army).
(6) Biography of Aqqush al-Shamsi in the appendix to Mirʾāt al-Zamān (vol. 4, p. 55), Tārīkh al-Islām (vol. 15, p. 371), al-Wāfī (vol. 9, p. 325), al-Nujūm al-Zāhirah (vol. 7, p. 344), and al-Dalīl al-Shāfī (vol. 1, pp. 144–145) under the year of death 678 AH. In some of these sources he is named Aqqush ibn ʿAbd Allāh, amīr Jamāl al-Dīn al-Shamsi.
(7) In the appendix to Mirʾāt al-Zamān (vol. 4, p. 55): “al-Shamsi denotes affiliation with the Shamsiyya, established by Amīr Badr al-Dīn Baysarī and other members of the Shamsiyya (may Allah be pleased with them).”
(8) B reads: “He personally carried out the killing of Kitbughanwin, the Tatar vanguard commander, on the day of ʿAyn Jalūt. He was also the one who captured ʿIzz al-Dīn Aydamūr al-Zāhirī, who had served as his deputy the previous year.”
(9) Biography of Dāwūd al-Ḥabbāl in the appendix to Mirʾāt al-Zamān (vol. 4, pp. 55–56) and in al-Dalīl al-Shāfī (vol. 1, p. 295).
(10) I found no mention of him in Hanbali works: neither in the appendix to Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah nor in al-Maqṣad al-Arshad nor in al-Shadharāt.
(11) Appendix to Mirʾāt al-Zamān (vol. 4, pp. 55–56), which states: “He was a pious shaykh, endowed with karāmāt (miraculous gifts), and known for his virtuous conduct and reliable reports.”