then a group of Damascus dignitaries (1) went out to him; but when they left his camp and reached Bab Sharqi they were stripped of their clothes and turbans and returned in the worst of states. He thereupon sent men to summon them, yet most of them went into hiding and kept out of his reach.

On the third of Rajab, after the congregational prayer, a proclamation was issued in the Great Mosque—at the order of the citadel’s deputy—announcing that the Egyptian armies were marching toward Syria (2).

That same Saturday evening Bolai and his Tatar companions (3) broke camp, withdrew from Damascus—Allah having spared the city their presence—and crossed the Dummar pass (4), laying waste to the districts they traversed. Before the seventh of the month dawned, not a single one of them remained anywhere near the city; Allah—may He be exalted—had lifted their evil from His servants and His land.

Qibjaq then proclaimed to the populace: “The roads are now secure; not one Tatar (5) is left in all of Syria.”

On Friday, the tenth of Rajab, Qibjaq led the prayer in the maqṣūrah (6), accompanied by a group (7) clad in full battle gear—swords, bows, and quivers packed with arrows. The countryside felt safe, and the people went out, as was their custom, to stroll through the quince grove; but a band of Tatars fell upon them. When the people saw them they fled headlong back to the city, some robbing one another on the way, others flinging themselves into the river. In truth that band was only passing through and did not linger.

Even so, Qibjaq grew uneasy in the city. He therefore departed with a contingent of its leaders and notables—including ʿIzz al-Din ibn al-Qalānisi—to meet the Egyptian army. The reason was that the Egyptian forces had set out for Syria on the ninth of Rajab, and couriers had brought word of this.

The city was left without a single soldier. Arjawāsh thereupon proclaimed: “Guard the walls! Bring out whatever weapons you have! Neglect neither the ramparts nor the gates! Let no one spend the night anywhere but on the wall—whoever sleeps in his own house will be hanged (8)!” The townspeople therefore assembled upon the ramparts to defend the land.

Every night Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya would make the rounds of the walls (9), exhorting the people to patience and combat, reciting to them the verses on jihad and ribāṭ, and reminding them of the hadiths reported from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ concerning the merit of jihad, ribāṭ, and standing guard, urging them earnestly to that end (10).

On Friday, the seventeenth of Rajab, the khuṭbah was once again delivered in Damascus (11) in the name of the ruler of Egypt, Sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir.