the Two Holy Sanctuaries and elsewhere, and a proclamation was made in Damascus on the Day of ʿArafah that no member of the dhimmī community was to ride (1) a horse or a mule. Whoever among the Muslims saw a dhimmī violating (2) this order was entitled to strip him of his mount.

Toward the end of this year—and the one that followed it (3)—a severe famine struck the Egyptian lands, by which countless people perished; in the month of Dhu’l-Ḥijjah alone some twenty thousand died.

In this same year the Tatar ruler (4) Ghāzān ibn Arghūn ibn Abāqā ibn Tūlī ibn Chinggis Khān embraced Islam and openly professed it at the hands of the amir Nawruz (5) (may Allah have mercy on him). The Tatars, or most of them, entered Islam with him, and on the day of his conversion he scattered gold, silver, and pearls over the heads of the people. He assumed the name Muḥammad, attended the Friday prayer and sermon, demolished many churches, imposed the jizya upon their followers, and restored numerous confiscated properties in Baghdad and other regions. Rosaries and prayer-niches were henceforth seen among the Tatars (6)—praise belongs to Allah alone.

Among the notable deaths of the year (7):

Shaykh Abū al-Rijāl al-Manīnī (8)—the righteous, ascetic worshipper (9) Abū al-Rijāl ibn Miry ibn Baḥtar al-Manīnī (10). He enjoyed spiritual states and unveilings; people from Damascus and farther afield would visit him in the village of Manīn, and he would at times come to Damascus, where he was honored and hosted. He maintained a zāwiyah in his hometown (11) and was innocent of those satanic samāʿāt (ecstatic musical séances). He had been a disciple of Shaykh Jandal, who himself was among the eminent righteous and likewise followed the way of the Salaf. Shaykh Abū al-Rijāl reached the age of eighty; he died in Manīn, in his own house, on the tenth of Muḥarram, and the people of Damascus came out for his funeral.