and said that he was under severe strain with the Tatars—then he set about requisitioning the horses that were in the people’s possession and seizing funds to provision the Tatars. (1)
The Shaykh of Shuyukh, Nizam al-Din Mahmud ibn ‘Ali al-Shaybani, took up residence in the Great ‘Adiliyya Madrasa.
On Saturday, the fifteenth of Rabi‘ al-Akhir, the Tatars together with the lord of Sis began plundering al-Salihiyya. They found there abundant stores of grain, tore out doors and windows, and ruined many establishments: the Nasiri ribat and other fine places such as the Sahibiyya Madrasa and the Maristan in al-Salihiyya, as well as the Asadiyya Mosque, the Khatun Mosque, and the Ashrafiyya Hadith School; moreover, the Tawbah Mosque in al-‘Aqiba went up in flames. (2) This was done by the Georgians and Armenians—the Christian contingents who were with the Tatars, may Allah disgrace them.
They carried off a great multitude of the inhabitants as captives. Most of the people sought refuge in the Hanbali ribat, which the Tatars then surrounded. (3) The aforementioned Shaykh of Shuyukh shielded it from them, offering the besiegers a payment that merely looked like money; yet they soon forced their way in (4) and seized many prisoners from among the daughters and sons of the scholars—indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.
When the Hanabila Monastery was struck on the second of Jumada al-Ula, they killed a number of men and captured many women, (5) and the Chief Judge Taqi al-Din suffered severe abuse. It is reported that they slew nearly 400 people of al-Salihiyya and took about 4,000 prisoners. Numerous books were plundered from the Nasiri and Diya’iyya ribats and from the library of Ibn al-Bazuri; they were being sold even though the waqf inscription was plainly written on them. (6) They did in al-Mizzah what they had done in al-Salihiyya, and likewise in Darayya and elsewhere. The people barricaded themselves in the central mosque of Darayya, but it was forced open; many were killed and their women and children carried off—truly, to Allah we belong and to Him we shall return. (7)
On Thursday, the twentieth of Rabi‘ al-Akhir, Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah set out with a group of his companions to meet the Tatar ruler; he returned two days later without having managed to see him, (8) for he was kept away by the vizier Sa‘d al-Din and Rashid Mushir al-Dawlah al-Muslimani, a convert from Judaism, (9) who promised to settle the matter on his behalf and explained that many of the Tatars had not yet obtained any spoils and that something would have to be given to them. News then spread through the city that the Tatars intended to enter Damascus, and the people were deeply shaken and afraid.