in the autumn, and to advance into Egypt and conquer it. (1) Yet the Citadel had foiled them; they could not reach so much as a single stone of it. Sayf al-Din Qibjaq went out to bid farewell to Qutlu Shah, Ghazan’s deputy, and accompanied him for a while. The drums of glad tidings were beaten on the Citadel in joy at their departure, though its gates were never opened.

The next day Arjawash sent a detachment from the Citadel to the congregational mosque; they broke up the timbers of the catapults that had been set up there and hurried back safely to the fortress. With them they brought a number of people who, under compulsion, had been keeping close to the Tatars—among them the Sharif al-Qummi, Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi’l-Qasim al-Murtada al-‘Alawi.

Messengers from Qibjaq then reached Damascus and cried aloud: “Lift up your spirits (2), open your shops, and prepare tomorrow to welcome the Sultan of Syria, Sayf al-Din Qibjaq.” The townspeople went out to their quarters, looked down upon them, and saw the ruin and devastation that lay there. The leading men of the city were at last released from the forced registrations after having endured much suffering.

Shaykh ‘Alam al-Din al-Barzali relates: Shaykh Wajih al-Din Ibn al-Munajja told me that he had delivered to Ghazan’s treasury three thousand (alf – “thousand”) and six hundred thousand dirhams—that is, three million six hundred thousand—apart from what was consumed by the registrations, the bribes, and what other emirs and viziers seized. The Shaykh al-Mashayikh received about six hundred thousand dirhams, al-Asil ibn al-Nasir al-Tusi one hundred thousand, and al-Safi al-Sakhawi (3) eighty thousand.

Sayf al-Din Qibjaq returned to Damascus on Thursday afternoon, the twenty-fifth of Jumada al-Ula, accompanied by al-Albaki and a company of men. Drawn swords were carried before him and he wore a turban upon his head. He alighted at the palace, and a town crier proclaimed throughout the city (4): “Your deputy Qibjaq has arrived; open your shops (5), attend to your livelihoods (6), and let no one risk his life in these times, for prices are exceedingly high and goods exceedingly scarce. A sack of grain (7) has reached four hundred, a pound of meat about ten, a pound of bread two and a half dirhams, ten pounds of flour (8) around forty, an ounce of cheese (9) one dirham, and five eggs one dirham.” [Relief finally came toward the end of the month.]

Toward the close of the month Qibjaq proclaimed in the city that people should return to their villages. He issued orders to various groups; many soldiers gathered around him, rumors multiplied at his door, his prestige grew, and the drums of glad tidings were beaten both in the Citadel and at Qibjaq’s gate on Friday.