al-Zamalkānī (1) was keeping them informed of the condition of the amir Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afram, and so too Kamāl al-Dīn ibn al-ʿAṭāʾ (2). When the Deputy of the Sultanate read this he realised that it was fabricated. He searched for the author and discovered that it was a pauper who had been living in the house adjoining the miḥrāb al-Ṣaḥābah (3), known as al-Yaʿfūrī, together with another man called Aḥmad al-Ghanārī; both were notorious for mischief and meddling. A draft of the letter was found in their possession, whereupon the Deputy verified the matter, had them given a severe public beating, and they were afterwards executed by being cut in half.

[At the beginning of Jumādā al-Ākhirah] (4) the hand of the scribe who had written the letter for them—al-Tāj al-Manādīlī—was cut off.

Toward the end of Jumādā al-Ūlā the amir Sayf al-Dīn Balban al-Jukundār al-Manṣūrī was transferred to the deputyship of the Citadel in place of Arjawāsh.

A Marvel of the Sea (5)

Shaykh ʿIlm al-Dīn al-Bizzālī relates in his History:

“I read in one of the books that arrived from Cairo that on Thursday, 4 Jumādā al-Ākhirah, a creature of wondrous form emerged from the Nile onto the land of al-Manūfiyya, between the villages of Minyat Masʿūd, Iṣṭabārī, and al-Rāhib. Its description is as follows: its colour was that of a buffalo, yet it was hairless; its ears were like those of a camel; its eyes and its genitalia resembled those of a she-camel; its private part was covered by a tail a span and a half long, like a fish’s tail. Its neck was as thick as a sack stuffed with straw; its mouth and lips were like a sieve (kirbāl). It had four tusks—two above and two below—each a little less than a span long and two finger-breadths thick. Inside its mouth were forty-eight molars and other teeth shaped like chess pawns. The length of its foreleg from its inner side to the ground was two and a half spans, while from the knee to the hoof it looked like the belly of a snake, yellow and corrugated. The circumference of its hoof was like a saucer (sukurruja), with four nails like those of a camel. The breadth of its back was about two and a half cubits, and its length from mouth to tail was fifteen feet. It had three stomachs; its flesh was red and smelled fishy, while its taste was said to be like camel meat. Its hide was four fingers thick, impervious to swords. Because of its weight, the hide had to be carried on five camels, one after another, taking about an hour. The creature was brought before the Sultan in the Citadel, stuffed with straw, and set up in his presence. Allah knows best.”