On the twenty-ninth of Rabiʿ al-Awwal the Caliph al-Ḥākim delivered a sermon in which he urged the people to undertake jihad (and general mobilization), then led them in the Friday prayer, reciting the basmalah aloud.
During the night preceding Saturday, the thirteenth of Ṣafar, the red jurn (1) that had stood by the ice-house gate in Acre was brought in and set in its place—while the muezzins and Qur’an-reciters stood before it and the children looked on in amazement—until it was fixed, filled, and supplied with running water. Before this there had been a low copper trough; this new vessel had originally been a baptismal font, revered for its supposed blessing—Allah knows best (2).
In Rabiʿ al-Awwal (3) the construction of the ṭārimah and the adjoining residences (4) together with the Blue Qittah was completed; the whole ensemble appeared in perfect beauty, craftsmanship, and height.
On Monday, the second of Jumada al-Ūlā, the lesson at the Ẓāhiriyyah was given by Shaykh (5) Ṣafī al-Din Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Armawī, replacing ʿAlāʾ al-Din ibn Bint al-Aʿazz.
On that same day Kamāl al-Din ibn al-Zaki lectured at the Dawlaʿiyyah.
On Monday, the seventh of Jumada al-Ākhirah, Shaykh Ḍiyāʾ al-Din ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Ṭūsī began teaching at the Najībiyyah, after al-Fārūthī (6) resigned the post to him. Allah knows best what is correct.
[The Capture of the Fortress of the Rūm]
In Rabiʿ al-Awwal (7) of that year (8) Sultan al-Ashraf set out with the armies (9) toward Syria; he entered Damascus accompanied by his vizier Ibn
(1) In the T edition it reads “al-jarz.” Manuscripts A and B differ here, and the wording of this report remains obscure. Bashar explains that al-jurn means “the cup.” al-Dhahabi records the incident in fuller detail: it seems this cup was among the spoils of Acre and was used by the local Christians to hold the water for baptizing children. It was brought to the Citadel of Damascus and then installed in the Umayyad Mosque in place of the bronze cooling basin (barādah). He writes:
“In Safar the deputy of Damascus, al-Shuja‘i, ordered the splendid shimmering cup to be moved from the citadel to the mosque… the barādah was removed… It is a cup resembling a hunab marharah (i.e. broad and shallow), holding about ten artals of water or less. Its stone is of the same kind as the slabs flanking the mihrab of the Damascus Mosque – a smooth, finely carved block with little risk of fracturing. They ran water through it, the two dippers were fastened to the corner, and we drank from it. Then they returned it to the citadel, and after a few days it was installed in the sultan’s palace.” (Tarikh al-Islam 15:679)
(2) Present only in manuscript B.
(3) In manuscript B it reads “al-akhir.”
(4) In manuscripts A and B it reads “al-adr al-sultaniyya.”
(5) In manuscript A it reads “lil-shaykh” (for the sheikh).
(6) In the T edition it appears as “al-Fariqi,” which is a corruption; his biography will appear in Wafayat under the year 694.
(7) In manuscript A it reads “Rabi‘ al-Akhir.”
(8) Present only in the T edition.
(9) In manuscript A it reads “bi-l-ʿasakir al-mansurah.”