the people with harsh requisitions, seized their timber, and had it transported to Damascus (1) at enormous cost and under great hardship—surely to Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.

The Death of Sultan al-Malik al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn

While the populace was weighed down by these worries, confiscations, and the like, a courier arrived with the news that al-Malik al-Manṣūr had died on Saturday, the sixth of Dhu al-Qaʿda of this year, at the encampment (2) outside Cairo. His body was conveyed by night to the Citadel of the Mountain, and after him his son al-Malik al-Ashraf Khalīl assumed the succession. All the emirs swore allegiance to him; his name was proclaimed from the pulpits; and he rode forth in the full pomp of kingship, the entire army (3) marching on foot in his service from the Citadel of the Mountain to the Black Parade Ground, which is the horse market. Robes of honor were bestowed upon the emirs and commanders (4), and upon the judges and notable men as well. When the news reached Syria, its emirs likewise swore fealty to him. He arrested (5) Ḥusām al-Dīn Ṭurunṭāy, his father’s deputy, confiscated immense sums from him, and spent part of them on the troops (6).

In the same year: the post of Friday preacher in Damascus was granted to Zayn al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Makkī ibn al-Murraḥḥal (7) in place of Jamāl al-Dīn ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī (8), thanks to the patronage of al-Aʿsar. (The supervision of the Great Mosque was entrusted to the chief, Wajīh al-Dīn ibn al-Munajja al-Ḥanbalī, replacing Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Maqdisī; he cultivated its endowment, restored it, and increased its revenue by one hundred and fifty thousand.)

That same year, the residence of the lord of Ḥamāh burned down. A fire had broken out during his absence, and no one dared enter; the flames raged for two days, consuming the house and everything in it.

In Shawwāl, Imām al-Dīn al-Qūnawī took up the professorial chair at the madrasa (9) of Umm al-Ṣāliḥ, succeeding the judge Ibn al-Maqdisī.